Jeremy Hunt: our NHS hero?
The Conservative Party Conference was interesting
on a number of levels – most notably Theresa May’s
end-of-March deadline for triggering Article 50
and commencing our exit for the EU. But perhaps
more intriguing was her decision to praise Jeremy
Hunt as a ‘passionate advocate for our doctors’.
Under the banner of creating a ‘society that works for everyone’, May and
Hunt pledged to train more UK doctors and make the NHS ‘self-sufficient’. The
announcement of more funding to increase the number of medical school places
by 25 per cent from 2018 is welcome, but the plan to end our dependence on
foreign doctors is risky, to say the least.
Immigration was such a central theme of the EU referendum that it was always
likely to dominate the Party speeches. But if it is reasonable to have ‘hard Brexit’
and ‘soft Brexit’ options, would it not also be wise to have ’hard migration’ and
‘soft migration’ alternatives?
Staff shortages and recruitment crises regularly preside over the growing list
of impending concerns within the NHS, and with over half of our current NHS
workforce foreign-born, it seems far more likely that this announcement will
inflict more pressure on an NHS outfit already beginning to burst at the seams.

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interact with us
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May and Hunt have declared the Conservative’s as the party of the NHS. But the
pair’s latest musings show little intention to stem the blood loss of our most
valuable institution, but more worryingly appear to show an attempt to block the
wound by taking away the stitches.

Michael Lyons, editor

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CONTENTS

07 NEWS

Health efficiencies will be harder to find;
calls to improve social services; and
high spending agency staff threat

17 INFORMATION
TECHNOLOGY

A review into the digital future of the
NHS has suggested the ‘paperless’ NHS
2020 aim should be pushed back to 2023.
Health Business looks at the report and
the progress of digital records

09

23 EHI LIVE

EHI Live returns to Birmingham’s NEC
on 1-2 November, exploring the latest
technology solutions for commissioners
and clinicians. Health Business previews
the conference agenda and exhibition

29 ENERGY
37
56

Health Business explores the details of the
Securing Healthy Returns report, which
calculated potential NHS savings of £414
million and carbon emission cuts of one
million tonnes by 2020

33 PROCUREMENT

The NHS Supply Chain outlines the
potential of saving while
spending when working within a
financially‑constrained environment

37 RECRUITMENT

82

With the future of the NHS European
workforce a major discussion topic, Kate
Ling of the NHS Confederation’s European
Office looks at the possible post-Brexit
NHS. Plus, a review of the Healthcare
Recruitment & Training Fair

43 FIRE SAFETY

The size and complexity of hospital
buildings makes them more susceptible
to fire risk than most environments. Will
Lloyd of the Fire Industry Association
discusses the best safety steps to take

47 HEALTHCARE ESTATES
85

Visitors flocked to Manchester for
the biggest showcase of products
and services in the UK health sector.
Health Business reviews the event

51 UK HEALTH SHOW

The well-attended UK Health Show
explored the hottest topics of healthcare
in the UK – cyber attacks, data handling
and digital leaders. Health Business
reviews the show

Leadership is far more than the
figurehead in charge, and in the current
NHS climate, it has never been more
important. In the first of two articles on
the topic John Yates, group director at
ILM, discusses leadership at all levels,
while Chris Lake, of the NHS Leadership
Academy, looks at six reasons hindering
investment in leadership development

59 MEDICAL DEVICES

New guidance is ensuring that health
apps that qualify as medical devices
comply with safety regulations.
Valerie Field, of the MHRA, outlines
the importance of the guidance

63 PATIENT FIRST

Returning to the ExCel Centre on the
22-23 November, Patient First is the
leading national event for patient safety
and infection prevention. Health Business
previews the conference

77 HB AWARDS

Taking place on 29 November, the
annual Health Business Awards return
for its eighth edition, celebrating the
success stories in our hospitals

79 DIABETES
PROFESSIONAL CARE

An expanded showfloor and exciting
seminar programme makes Diabetes
Professional Care one of the most
anticipated health shows of the year

NHS 111 to refer
fewer patients to
out-of-hours GP
New plans announced by the Department
of Health indicate that the NHS 111
will be referring less patients to GP
out-of-hours services and A&E.
It claims that GPs spent almost 40 per
cent of their time advising patients on minor
ailments. However starting from December,
NHS 111 will send patients requiring urgent
repeat prescriptions, or suffering minor
issues like ear aches, sore throats or bites,
straight to a community pharmacy instead.
Additionally, pharmacies will be given
direct powers to hand out medicines to
patients who have run out, without the
approval of a doctor, as long as their surgery
has put the prescription on repeat.
The Department of Health said NHS 111
currently receives 200,000 calls each year
from patients needing urgent prescriptions.
The plans suggest that GPs would
be kept informed about their patients’
medication via the Summary Care Record,
which is in the process of being rolled out
to community pharmacies nationally.
The pilot has already been trialled in the
North East, where the Department of Health
said it had been ‘positively received by
patients and supported the resilience of the
local urgent and emergency care system’.
David Mowat, community health and
care minister, commented: “Community
pharmacists already contribute a
huge amount to the NHS, but we are
modernising the sector to give patients
the best possible quality and care.
“This new scheme will make more use of
pharmacists’ expertise, as well as freeing
up vital time for GPs and reducing visits
to A&E for urgent repeat medicines.”
Professor Keith Willett, medical director for
acute care at NHS England, said: “Directing
patients to go to a community pharmacy
instead of a GP or A&E for urgent repeat
medicines and less serious conditions,
could certainly reduce the current pressure
on the NHS, and become an important
part of pharmacy services in the future.
“This pilot will explore a
sustainable approach to integrate
this into NHS urgent care.”

READ MORE:
tinyurl.com/zhz3sdq

Health efficiencies
will be harder to find
The NHS Confederation has said that
there will be ‘considerable challenges’ in
finding savings in the NHS in Wales.
The comment comes in response to a major
report by the Health Foundation which looks
at the increasing challenges of meeting
growing demand. The report, The path to
sustainability, examined the immediate
challenges facing the NHS until 2020 and also
explored what else the health service could
be faced with for 10 years following this.
It identified that the NHS in Wales
must deliver at least £700 million of
efficiency savings to close the projected
funding gap by 2019/20 – almost
10 per cent of NHS spending.
Discussing the report, Anita Charlesworth,
director of Research and Economics at
the Health Foundation, said: “The next
few years will be tough for the NHS in
Wales. Immediate and sustained action
is needed to protect patient care, but
long-term sustainability is possible.
“Tackling the urgent funding pressures
facing the Welsh NHS requires an unrelenting
focus on improving efficiency. Securing its
long-term future also requires increased
investment and continued reform so the
service meets the changing needs of an
ageing population. But the health service
is not an island – ensuring people can
access high quality social care will also be
vital to the future of the NHS in Wales.”

The NHS Confederation, the body
representing Wales’ seven health boards,
said there were reasons for ‘cautious
optimism’ in the longer term but it was
‘very tough’ to expect further savings in the
short term after £800 million efficiencies
had been made over the last five years.
Vanessa Young, NHS Confederation director,
commented: “The NHS will continue to work
hard to drive efficiency but it’s important to
recognise that significant savings have been
made in the last few years, and this becomes
harder and harder to maintain each year.
“Our members are also facing
considerable recruitment and retention
challenges across the NHS and there
is a risk that the assumptions around
pay may not be deliverable.”
Vaughan Gething, Welsh Health Secretary,
commented: “If they continue to cut public
spending in the way they’ve outlined it
could really compromise our ability to have
a service which is properly affordable.”

READ MORE:
tinyurl.com/zl97udp

FUNDING

Prioritise funding for social
services over NHS, say experts
Stephen Dorrell, chairman of the NHS
Confederation and a former Conservative
Health Secretary, has called on the
government to focus more money
on improving social services.
Dorrell warned that ‘fetishing’ the NHS is
damaging the health service because hospitals
are used as an expensive way to look after
the elderly. He argued that around £5 billion
per year is needed to take councils back to the
level of a decade ago and that such funding
should be prevalent in next month’s Autumn B
udget.
Research has shown that health
spending has increased by 25 per
cent over the past decade but social
care spending has remained flat.
Dorrell said: “Fetishising the NHS budget
and imagining it’s the only public service
that relates to health is fundamentally to

miss the point. It is not true to say we are
supporting the health service by asking it
to do social care. We are using the health
service as a very expensive social care service
and then talking about efficiency. It’s insane
economics and very bad social policy.
“We would deliver a more efficient NHS
and better health if we spent the money on
supporting people out of the health service
rather than waiting for them to become ill.”
A spokeswoman for the Department
of Health said: “This government
is committed to making sure funding is
used effectively right across the health
economy. That’s why we are giving local
authorities access to up to £3.5 billion
extra for adult social care by 2020.”
READ MORE:

tinyurl.com/hjxlent

Volume 16.5 | HEALTH BUSINESS MAGAZINE

7

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Welsh Budget: extra
£240m for NHS
Finance Secretary Mark Drakeford
has pledged an extra £240 million
for the NHS in the Welsh budget.
While there were cuts to some areas of local
government and community projects, total
spending rose by 2.7 per cent to £14.95 billion.
Drakeford said: “In these uncertain times,
we have published a one-year revenue
budget, which will provide stability and
assurances for our valued public services
in the immediate future while we work
collectively to plan for the future.”
Funding also included £111 million
for apprenticeships and traineeships,
and £4.5 million towards a pledge
to raise the savings limit for people
in residential care to £50,000.
The news comes as the Health Foundation
recently published a report warning
that the costs of the health service
are likely to rise by an average of 3.2
per cent per year in the long term.
This means that, despite the increase in
funding, the NHS will continue to need to
deliver a significant portion of efficient savings.

READ MORE:

tinyurl.com/zos7g6o

The Royal College of Midwives (RCM) has
warned that the NHS in England has spent
£25 million on agency midwives in 2015,
more than double the figure spent in 2013.
The RCM compiled the data by submitting a
series of Freedom of Information requests to
around 123 NHS trusts in England. The data
revealed that 46 had used agency midwives
last year to fill gaps on hospital rotas.
It found the total spending in 2015 on
agency midwives, overtime and the NHS’s
flexible ‘bank’ midwives was £72.7 million.
The report highlighted that agency midwives
were paid, on average, around £41 per

hour, half of which went to the agency.
Jon Skewes from the RCM, said: “An
over‑reliance on temporary staff is clearly
more expensive than employing the correct
number of permanent staff and needs to
be corrected sooner rather than later.”
A spokesman for NHS Improvement
maintained that trusts had made good
progress and saved over £600 million
on agency staff since last year.
They added: “We are committed to helping
the NHS cut the cost of agency midwives and
all agency staff, so that patients get the right
care, from the right staff, at the right time.”

READ MORE:
tinyurl.com/j95mqes

PHARMACIES

Pharmacy funding
cuts risk closures

PREGNANCY

Safer pregnancy awareness
campaign launched
can make or the signs to look out for, they can
increase their chances of a healthy pregnancy.
“The new campaign is a game-changing
moment and will help us halve the rates of
stillbirths, neonatal deaths, maternal
deaths and brain injuries occurring
during or soon after birth by 2030.”
Wikipedia/Ted Eytan

The Department of Health has launched the
‘Our Chance’ campaign aimed at maximising
women’s chances of having safer pregnancies.
The initiative has been developed
with Best Beginnings and Sands to give
parents the knowledge and confidence
to maximise their chances of healthy
outcomes for themselves and their babies.
The campaign assures that with a
timely diagnosis, most conditions can be
well‑managed to reduce the risks of stillbirth,
neonatal death and maternal death.
Through the chance.org.uk website and the
Best Beginnings Baby Buddy app, women
and their families can learn about how to
best look after themselves and their baby.
Commenting on the launch, Health Secretary
Jeremy Hunt said: “The loss of any baby or
new mum is a tragedy. We want any NHS
hospital to be one of the safest places in
the world to have a baby. By making sure
women are aware of the small changes they

Health Secretary
Jeremy Hunt: “The
loss of any baby
or new mum is
a tragedy.”

Sue Sharpe, chief executive of the
Pharmaceutical Services negotiating
Committee (PSNC), has warned that
the cuts to the sector would throw
the health service into chaos, as closing
pharmacies will mean more people will
turn to GPs instead of pharmacists.
In a letter to the Department of Health,
Sharpe said: “The proposals were, and
remain, founded on ignorance of the value
of pharmacies to local communities, to the
NHS, and to social care, and will do great
damage to all three. We cannot accept them.”
The PSNC warned that the new plans
indicated that pharmacies would receive
£113 million less than expected from
December 2016 to March 2017 and
£208 million less the following year.
The news comes after plans for a £170
million cut this year were delayed after two
million people signed a petition opposing
the change. Currently 90 per cent of the
income that pharmacies receive from the
government pays for dispensing prescriptions.
A spokesman for the Department for Health
said: “We are committed to offering more help
to those pharmacies people most depend on.”
READ MORE:
tinyurl.com/j95mqes

Low blood pressure
and dizziness in dementia link
Research published in Plos Medicine has
suggested that people who experience
frequent drops in blood pressure or
dizziness when suddenly standing may
have an increased risk of dementia.
The study claimed that less blood reaches
the brain during these moments which
could lead to brain cell damage over time.
It involved tracking 6,000 people for an
average of 15 years. The researchers noted that
those who suffered repeated periods of low
blood pressure on standing were more likely to
develop dementia in the years that followed.
Dr Arfan Ikram, one of the researchers
involved in the project, said: “Even though
the effect can be seen as subtle – with an
increased risk of about four per cent for
people with postural hypotension compared
to those without it – so many people suffer
from postural hypotension as they get older
that it could have a significant impact on
the burden of dementia across the world.
“If people experience frequent episodes of
dizziness on standing, particularly as they get
older, they should see their GPs for advice.”
Commenting on the findings, Professor Tom
Dening, from Nottingham University, said:

“The suggestion is that feeling dizzy, which
results from a fall in blood pressure, may
interfere with the circulation of blood round
the brain and that over time, this causes
damage which may contribute to dementia.
“This is a plausible hypothesis and has
support from other research. It is possible
that something else may be going on. A dizzy
spell is not a death sentence nor does it mean
you are certain to develop dementia. On the
other hand, if this problem occurs frequently,
then it is worth seeing your doctor as there
may be remediable causes, for example if you
are taking medication it should be reviewed.”

Dr Laura Phipps, of the charity Alzheimer’s
Research UK, said: “While the risks
found in this study are reasonably small
compared to other known risk factors for
dementia, it adds to a growing and complex
picture of how blood pressure changes
throughout life can impact the brain.
“As well as maintaining a healthy
blood pressure, the best current evidence
suggests that not smoking, only drinking in
moderation, staying mentally and physically
active, eating a balanced diet, and keeping
cholesterol levels in check can all help to
keep our brains healthy as we age.”

READ MORE:
tinyurl.com/zxdy3z6

VACCINATIONS

NHS TAX

Over four million children
to be offered flu vaccination

70 per cent would
pay extra 1p per
pound in NHS tax

Public Health England (PHE) has
announced that it is extending the flu
programme to include children in Year 3.
The Stay Well This Winter campaign
(SWTW), launched on 12 October 2016, is
the biggest ever flu vaccination programme
in England for children. This year the
programme is being extended to those
in school Year 3, offering more than four
million children protection against flu –
around 600,000 more than last year.
The scheme will help reduce the spread of
this infection to the most vulnerable in the
community, particularly younger children, the
elderly and those with long-term conditions.
With the school vaccination programme set
to get underway, children aged two, three and
four can now get the vaccination from their GP.
Research shows that children are most
likely to spread the flu to others, so targeting
them helps protect the wider community
too. It is estimated that several million
people get the flu each winter, leading
to more than 2,000 NHS intensive care
admissions across the UK last year.

Professor Dame Sally Davies, chief medical
officer at PHE, commented: “Flu can be much
more dangerous for children than many
parents realise, and when children get
flu, they tend to spread it around the
whole family. Every year, thousands of
children have flu and it is not uncommon
for them to be admitted to hospital.
“The single best way to help protect your
children, and the rest of the family, is to
get them vaccinated. For most, it is just a
quick, easy and painless nasal spray.”

A poll ran by ITV has indicated that at least
70 per cent of Brits would happily pay an
extra 1p in every pound if the money was
guaranteed to go directly into the NHS.
The survey of 1,002 people was conducted
by Survation for a health-focused The Agenda,
and showed that almost half of those
surveyed confirmed they would even pay an
extra 2p per pound to boost NHS funding.
Furthermore, 46 per cent of respondents
thought the current NHS was performing
badly with only 23 per cent saying
that it was performing well.
The research suggested that while taxpayers
were prepared to pay more to support the
NHS, patients are not willing to pay on an
individual basis for specific treatments.
Around 66 per cent of respondents said
that they would not pay £5 to visit their GP
(27 per cent said they would) while 79 per
cent said they would refuse to pay £10 with
only 15 per cent saying they would do so.

Funding incentives are to be offered
to doctors who train and work as
GPs in Wales in a bid to tackle the
country’s recruitment problems.
Part of a Welsh government campaign
to get doctors to train and work in Wales,
the offer will see junior doctors offered
£20,000, providing they stay for at least
one year after completing their training.
Additionally, the incentives, which will
come in to play in time for the August 2017
intake, will also see those who train as
GPs receiving a one-off payment of £2,000
to cover the cost of their final exams.
Understood to be the first scheme
of its kind in the UK, a new contract
will be offered to all trainee doctors in
Wales, regardless of their specialism.
Specialist training in general practice
takes three years to complete. Recent
research from the British Medical
Association found that over a quarter
of GPs in Wales were considering
leaving the profession, with concerns
over workload and understaffing.
READ MORE:
tinyurl.com/jdz5vra

In a bid to crack down on agency spending,
NHS bosses are threatening to ‘name and
shame’ high spending trusts in England.
NHS Improvement believes that the
NHS has slipped behind schedule in its
efforts to reduce the agency bill, and has
warned that it wants more progress.
A cap was introduced in October 2015
and has so far saved £600 million, but the
regulator wants the £3.6 billion spent on
agency staff last year brought down by £1
billion by the end of this financial year. The
latest accounts suggested NHS trusts were
10 per cent below where they wanted to be.
Hospitals, mental health trusts and
ambulance services should not be paying
more than 55 per cent above normal
shift rates for any staff, reducing the
overall cost of agency staff and reducing
hospital reliance on them in the process.
NHS Improvement has therefore threatened
that it would start publishing ‘league tables’
of the best and worst-performing trusts
on agency spending later this year, after
discovering examples of hospitals being
quoted double the rates for doctors.

READ MORE:
tinyurl.com/jfoa8d2

Jim Mackey, NHS Improvement chief
executive, said: “The NHS simply
doesn’t have the money to keep forking
out for hugely expensive agency staff.
There’s much more to be done.”

A&E SERVICES

EMERGENCY SERVICES

Council cuts affecting
A&E services, CCQ finds

Ambulance patients
face long A&E delays

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has raised
safety concerns about two thirds of A&E units
in England, claiming the drop in standards
is partly due to underfunding of council care
services, leading to overcrowding in hospitals.
In its review, the CQC outlined
that emergency care was one of the
poorest‑performing parts of the system,
with safety cited as a major weakness.
The data showed that 22 of 184 units
were rated inadequate and another
95 as requiring improvement.
The regulator warned that rationing of
council care, including access to home
help for daily tasks such as washing and
dressing, and care homes was pushing
more vulnerable people into hospital.
David Behan, CQC chief executive, said that
the council care system had reached a ‘tipping
point’ and was in the worst state it had been
a long time. Behan called on the government
to pump more money into the council care
system, but did not quantify how much
extra funding the care system should get.
The review did note that there were many
examples of good care among the 20,000

inspections it had carried out. It maintained
that despite cuts to council care services,
help that was being provided in the home
and in care homes was rated as good or
outstanding in 72 per cent of cases.
87 per cent of GP practices were ranked
as good and outstanding, in addition to
42 per cent of hospital care overall.
Katherine Murphy, chief executive of the
Patients Association, said: “While there
are nuggets of positive examples of trusts
successfully swimming against the tide,
fundamentally, the tide has turned and the
pressures are becoming so great that the health
and social care sector is struggling to meet
demand whilst delivering excellent quality care.”

READ MORE:
tinyurl.com/jqqewoe

Data obtained by the Labour Party has
highlighted that thousands of patients
who are taken to hospital by ambulance
face long delays before being seen by
accident and emergency (A&E) staff.
The figures showed the number
of patients waiting more than an
hour has trebled in two years.
Ambulances are expected to be
able to hand over patients to A&E
staff within 15 minutes of arrival.
However data for NHS England has shown
there were 76,000 waits over an hour in
2015-16, up from 28,000 in 2013-14.
The number of waits of more than 30
minutes rose by 60 per cent over the same
period, from 258,000 to nearly 413,000.
Ambulance crews have explained that
delays happened when there were no
A&E staff available for the ambulance
crews to hand patients over to. The most
life threatening cases would be prioritised.
The ambulance crews are then forced
to wait with their patients, meaning the
emergency vehicle is unavailable for 999 calls.
READ MORE:
tinyurl.com/htstg8s

The transformation to digital healthcare in the NHS is well underway. Using technology to
improve healthcare delivery and patient care has been a hot topic over the last few years

Technology is not just making its presence
felt in operating theatres and hospital
wards – NHS Trusts and PCTS are quickly
becoming aware that being able to access,
store and share patient records is as
crucial to improving patient care as the
latest breakthroughs in medical science.
The need for an efficient and effective
information management system manifests
itself across all levels of modern healthcare
provision. It encompasses everything
from consultants and surgeons accessing
x-rays and scans from workstations across
a hospital complex, ending the need for
cumbersome transfer of paper records from
site to another, with the incumbent risk of
them being misplaced or lost or misused;
to administration staff using systems that
help automate selected processes, saving
time and money. Add a dose of security and
audit, and suddenly, the prospect of a system
that mandates governance and eliminates
un-scrutinised misuse, becomes quite real.
This has been achieved in some NHS Trusts
who took the bold step to deliver change
some years ago and are now leading the
way forward including lessons learnt.
TWO KEY POINTS MUST
BE EMPHASISED:
First, paperless healthcare is not a dream – it
is real, has been done in the NHS – and, not
just once – it does deliver real and measurable
benefits. There is plenty of evidence from sites
where paperlite, if not paperless healthcare
has been achieved over the last five to six
years – there is a good and positive track
record for all to see and learn from – in
other words, it is eminently do-able, and
doing nothing is an expensive option!

Second, the focus is NOT technology, or
at least, technology plays a small but
important part in meeting the enormous
challenges imposed by transformation to
digital healthcare – it is about managing
that transformation. Actually, it’s all to
do with very careful application of the
available technology, to solve defined
problems and then build on that success to
tackle other problems, but at your pace.
KEY MESSAGE
The key message is that careful application
of established technologies is delivering
measurable improvements and benefits.
These must be applied to address strategic
requirements, rather than as a short-term
measure to solve paper problems. The
technology is not rocket-science, but has
evolved gradually as customer demands,
interoperability, and web accessibility
have evolved. To ensure successful
transformation to digital healthcare,
such lessons must be embraced.
ACHIEVING DIGITAL HEALTHCARE
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt wants the
NHS to be paperless by 2018. He said going
paperless would ‘save billions.’ In directives,
issued in January 2013 and February 2016, Mr
Hunt wants patients to have digital records
so that their information can follow them.
But unlike previous large scale, top-down
directives, he wants this driven bottom up and
by 2018 any crucial health information should
be available to staff at the touch of a button.
Most NHS sites hold patient related data
on a variety of different media, for example,
paper, microfilm and digital. It is currently very
difficult to identify exactly what information

may be held on a given patient. This has
resulted in falling standards for maintaining
the patient’s acute medical record; increasing
risk and leaving patients and clinicians at a
disadvantage. Furthermore, there are many
well-known issues related to paper-based
delivery of care, such as: physical handling
and transport of paper records; lack of
audit on who looked at any record; only
one person can see a record at any time;
cannot easily share records without copying;
lost records; escalating costs associated
with handling physical records; etc.
Yet, health and IT professionals remain
deeply sceptical that the NHS can be paperless
by 2018 – a large percentage of healthcare
professionals engaged in this work feel
that the paperless by 2018 goal is ‘a great
ambition, but unrealistic.’ The key concerns
expressed included: (a) IT Compatibility –
lack of interoperable systems, and cost of
replacing legacy systems, (b) costs, timescales,
technology, and cultural changes, and (c)
insufficient information about the potential
benefits from improved IT systems.
A number of trusts took the bold step
towards paperless healthcare some years
ago. These trusts achieved paper lite health
care using Electronic Document and Records
Management (EDRM) technologies – not
by simply installing IT, but by paying great
attention to the underlying processes. Cost
effective solutions based on established
EDRM technologies offer the chance for
Trusts to embrace a culture of compliant
information management practice to deliver
paperlite healthcare if not paperless!
There is no magic bullet solution – just a
common sense approach which focuses the
available technologies on specific processes
to ensure that the solution delivers what is
expected of it. The process is a migratory one
which promotes a trust-wide information
repository with newly created clinical
documents being ‘born’ into the repository
whilst ‘legacy’ information is scanned
and digitised in a staged manner. Systems
have become more affordable and are
delivering real and measurable benefits. L
FURTHER INFORMATION
www.ccubesolutions.com

A DUAL APPROACH
TO BRIDGING THE
DIGITAL DIVIDE
Low literacy is mirrored by poor health, whether it’s caused by disability or socio-economic
disadvantages. Assistive technology can make access to medical services and data easier for individuals
with literacy and language challenges who are the biggest consumers of healthcare resources
What is health literacy? A clear linkage
between literacy levels and public health
was identified as long ago as 1992 ‘Health status of illiterate adults: relation
between literacy and health status among
persons with low literacy skills’.
This original conjecture has since been
cited regularly by other observers. In 2013,
the WHO repeated the original assertion that
“literacy is a stronger predictor of individual’s
health status than income, employment status,
education level and racial or ethnic group.”
Closer to home, it’s a view expressed by
Joe Morrisroe of the National Literacy Trust,
who argues that low literacy negatively
impacts on the health of communities in the
UK: “The inability to access and interpret
information stemming from a lack of basic
skills presents individuals with a fundamental
challenge to take control of their own health.
As a result, health literacy skills should be
considered an integral part of any public
health strategy, and it is essential that
literacy skills underpin such strategies.”
REMOVING OBSTACLES
TO BETTER HEALTHCARE
Poor literacy can be the result of factors
such as educational attainment, often linked
with limited financial and social resources.
It can also be due to disabilities like dyslexia
– a condition that according to the British
Dyslexia Association affects 10 per cent of
the UK population, four per cent to a ‘severe’
degree. Equally, individuals for whom English
isn’t their first language (including ethnic
minorities and recent migrants) can struggle
to understand basic healthcare advice.
While the causal factors vary, the outcomes
remain essentially the same. Individuals
with poor literacy are less able to access
information about beneficial lifestyles and
self-regulate existing medical conditions
such as asthma and diabetes. They may be
unable to read basic nutritional information
on food packaging and make less healthy
choices as a result. Similarly, they may
struggle to read important pharmaceutical
information and medical instructions.
As Public Health England points out:
“People with limited health literacy are less

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HEALTH BUSINESS MAGAZINE | Volume 16.5

likely to use preventive services and more
likely to use emergency services, are less
likely to successfully manage long-term
health conditions and as a result incur higher
healthcare costs.” (September 2015).
The World Health Organiztion (WHO)
echoes this, pointing out that individuals
with weak health literacy typically make
sub-optimal lifestyle choices with a
consequent drain on healthcare systems.
MAJOR BARRIER
With 42 per cent of working-age adults in
this country unable to make adequate use
of everyday health information (source:
Public Health England), literacy is clearly
a major barrier to helping individuals
understand and manage their own health.
But as the NHS shifts towards greater
electronic interaction with end-users – from
booking GP appointments and requesting
repeat prescriptions to providing test
results – there’s the danger of a growing
divide between the general population and
patients who may lack basic digital skills.
Of course literacy has another profound
impact on the provision of healthcare.
Of around 1.6 million NHS staff and
community health workers across the UK,
11 per cent are officially recognised as
‘not British’ according to data from the
Health and Social Care Information Centre

(HSCIC), now known as NHS Digital.
Our health service relies heavily on staff
from overseas, with 2014 figures indicating
that 73 per cent of UK hospital trusts
recruited employees from abroad who
make a major contribution in all roles, from
doctors and nurses to carers, porters and
ancillary staff. And while doctors joining the
NHS from overseas are now subjected to
stringent language skills tests, not having
English as a first language can be a real
challenge for many employees coming to
the UK from over 200 different countries.
Today, assistive technology has a vital, dual
role to play in helping healthcare providers
deliver a more efficient, cost-effective service.
Screen readers can help those with low
literacy understand and interact successfully
with everything from personal health records
to online appointment booking. Similarly,
online translation tools can help almost 10 per
cent of the population for whom English isn’t
their first language – including patients as
well as NHS staff recruited from overseas. L

Jason Gordon is health manager at
Texthelp, a company producing digital
inclusion and assistive software products
for adults and students worldwide.
FURTHER INFORMATION
www.texthelp.com

Making IT work, or
creating a digital divide?
Bob Wachter has predicted that the NHS has the potential to be paper-free, but suggested that the
aim of a paperless NHS by 2020 is too ambitious. Health Business analyses the reviewed targets in
the Making IT Work report, and the journey the NHS has taken to digitise its healths records so far
The world around us is changing at an
alarming speed. In order for the NHS to
continue providing a high level of healthcare
at an affordable cost, it needs not only to
modernise, but also needs to overtake and
transform its current digital offering.
The first thing to make note of when
analysing Professor Bob Wachter’s Making IT
Work report is that he deems the Department
of Health’s push for a paperless NHS by 2020
as ‘aggressive’ and ‘unrealistic’. Instead, the
report suggests that a target should be set
for all trusts to be ‘largely digitalised’ by
2023 rather than 2020. Matthew Honeyman,
policy researcher at The Kings Fund charity,
summed it up quite nicely by saying that
Wachter’s recommendation of a relaxed
paperless timetable ‘injected a welcome
dose of realism into the debate’. Current
pressures on the NHS are piling up at an
unsustainable rate, and while funding fails
to match expectation, the 2020 paperless
push is, and will always be, too optimistic.
There is nothing wrong with ambitious
intentions – and the aim to digitise the NHS
in all of its forms is certainly the direction
that the health service should be heading.
But most health leaders agree that this has

to be a wholistic movement, a national
progressive step that is incorporated across
large trusts and local hospitals alike. The end
goal should not be a paperless NHS for the
sake of having a paperless NHS. A responsive
report released by Intellect in
March 2013, shortly after Jeremy
Hunt’s initial announcement of
creating a paperless NHS by
2018, said that a paperless NHS
must add ‘tangible value to
[the] efficiency, effectiveness
and experience’ of the ‘citizen,
staff and NHS organisations’.
CURRENT POLICY
COMPLICATIONS
In September of this year,
in response to Wachter’s
review, Health Secretary
Jeremy Hunt outlined
that 12 successful NHS
organisations were to become global
exemplars in pioneering digital service best
practice, and help others in the NHS to
learn from their success and experience.
Described by Hunt as an ‘Ivy League’ for
others to aspire to, this has the potential to

instil a hospital centric mindset, rather than
one of national integration and improvement.
It could also mean that half of all the trusts
in the NHS could miss out on central funding
ahead of the 2020 ‘paperless’ target. The 12
‘global digital centres of excellence’ will
benefit from approximately
£10 million from a £100
million pot, but they will
be expected to match that
amount locally. Another
wave of 20 organisations
will follow, forming what
Wachter described as a
‘Group B’, each receiving
around half that figure.
The third group, which
would represent half of the
UK’s NHS trusts would not
receive central funding until
after 2020, due to the fact
that they were not yet digitally
advanced enough to use the
money effectively. Wachter said that ‘if you
throw money at them [Group C trusts] there
is a decent chance you will be wasting it,
and you will get it wrong’. Funding would
then follow, post-2020, when culture E

PUSHING FORWARD THE
MOBILE REVOLUTION TO
IMPROVE NURSING CARE
The nurse holds a very important role in our healthcare system – at the heart of
patient care, handling the needs of medical professionals, families and of course
the patient themselves. It is clear, as the demand for care increases, that we need to
find smarter ways of working and to make life a little easier for our nurses too
Interestingly Ascom research shows that less
than a quarter of a nurse’s time is actually
spent interacting with patients. The remainder
is providing and chasing information, admin,
transportation and calling other colleagues.
Just think of the effect on patient care, staffing
levels and moral if we could free more time by
delivering relevant information to their fingertips
and by helping to automate key processes.
The really great news is that there is
technology that can help today; from simply
keeping in contact with colleagues wherever
they are in the hospital to improving workflows
that help improve patient pathways such as
sepsis and AKI. However, just like a chef needs
professional tools to ensure speed, quality and
consistency of the menus they create, nursing
care also needs the right solution to cater for
complex and constantly changing clinical needs.
Ascom provides dependable onsite
solutions for the healthcare environment
with its patient systems, unique middleware
and a variety of robust handsets. Wireless
handsets are specifically designed to be the
nurse’s companion matching their needs
with close attention to size, weight, and
ability to sanitise while allowing information
to be delivered directly to one device.
SETTING THE NURSE FREE
One of simplest benefits of a wireless
communications solution is that it helps
colleagues to stay in touch wherever they
are, as no one is tied to a desk. This saves
valuable time for example chasing results
on the go, communicating directly to the
bed or instantaneously finding colleagues
throughout the hospital. Less intrusive
two‑way messaging, very much like texting,
also helps staff stay in‑touch while in
meetings or when dealing with a patient.
This smarter way of working can help
reduce delays and improve patient care.
RIGHT RESPONSE AT THE RIGHT TIME
Ascom also found that over 85 per cent of
alarms do not actually require immediate
clinical intervention. Ascom helps here
by ensuring that the correct alarm is

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HEALTH BUSINESS MAGAZINE | Volume 16.5

sent out directly to the relevant nurse (or
nurse group) with a confirmed delivery.
Alarms can be prioritised, filtered and
even escalated then delivered directly to
the right wireless handset within seconds.
This ensures a consistent and effective
response. When you add this to a patient
pathway workflow then the ability to ensure
that resources are alerted and available,
especially for time-critical issues such as
sepsis, can also help improve outcomes.
IMPROVING STAFF SAFETY
Feeling safe at work is always on the mind
of senior clinicians especially with an 8.3 per
cent rise of reported assaults on staff in 2014.
Each personal handset can be armed
with a panic button to automatically call
for assistance. Any alert is then delivered,
with exact location information, to
security staff within seconds. This helps
reduce risk of assault and provides the
nurse with increased peace of mind.
MAKING LIFE EASIER FOR
THE CHARGE NURSE
With the integration to existing clinical
systems, time-sensitive information such as
alarms from medical devices, monitors and
even blood fridges can be directly sent to
the nurse’s mobile device too. The solution
has a built-in patient assignment module
so the charge nurse can easily allocate

patients to one, or several nurses and set an
auto‑escalation chain of two or three steps for
responding to the patients’ alarms. This means
that important alarms always get answered
even if the primary responder can’t attend
for any reason – crucial for patient care.
HOW CAN TECHNOLOGY
HELP YOUR HOSPITAL?
Wireless communication is truly a flexible
solution to match the ever changing needs of
nursing in striving to continuously improve
patient care. It can directly modernise manual
workflows within a clinical environment
helping to provide: faster decisions; faster
time to treatment; faster mobilisation
of multidisciplinary teams; increased
patient care hours; coordinated care;
reduced wasted time and effort; reduced
uncertainty of response to bleep call; and
analytics to improve clinical work-flows.
Call us to arrange an on-site demonstration
to show how this technology can help
improve, for example, sepsis pathways. Helping
to drive improvements by the automated
mobilisation of key hospital resources, such
as the Outreach team, doctors and nursing
staff, directly from a clinician’s handset. L
FURTHER INFORMATION
Tel: 0121 502 8979
uksales@ascom.com
www.ascom.com/uk

DIGITAL RECORDS
 changes have been made and they have
their IT houses in order, although whether
this will happen is unknown – Hunt avoided
the topic of further funds at the Expo.
The 12 global exemplar trusts will be: City
Hospitals Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust;
Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University
Hospitals NHS Trust; Salford Royal Hospitals
NHS Trust; Wirral University Teaching Hospital
NHS Foundation Trust; University Hospitals
Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust; Luton
& Dunstable University Hospital NHS Trust;
West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust; Royal
Free London NHS Foundation Trust; Oxford
University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust;
Taunton and Somerset NHS Foundation
Trust; University Hospitals Bristol NHS
Foundation Trust; and University Hospitals
Southampton NHS Foundation Trust.
FINANCING CHANGE
OR CHANGING FINANCE
There is no denying that a national,
comprehensive drive to digitalise the NHS
is costly – it has been already and it will
continue to be so. Put blankly, the £4.2 billion
that the Treasury made available to promote
digitisation this year is not enough to enable

full digital implementation and optimisation
at all NHS trusts – a point that Making IT
Work acknowledges by highlighting that
although funding has been ‘generous’, it is
‘not enough to complete the entire job’.
A phased approach has been suggested,
with national funding combined with local
resources to support implementation in trusts
that are prepared to digitise, and to support
those that are already digitised and ready to
reach even higher levels of digital maturity.
This would ideally by completed by 2019,
leaving four years for the second phase of
funding to take place – and for all remaining
trusts to gain digital maturity by 2023.
A side note to consider – Aesop’s ‘Tortoise and
the Hare’ fable is one of the Greek storyteller’s
most well known and explored. The race of
unequal partners is often interpreted for its
messages on trickery and the dangers of
mocking those considered inferior,
or in this case, slower than
ourselves. For the purpose
of this illustration, we
will take the ambiguous
story as one warning
against moving too fast
and moving too slow.

Slightly contradictory to the phased
funding model proposed, discussed above,
Wachter’s review stated that ‘while there
is urgency to digitise the NHS, there is
also risk in going too quickly’. The theme
of this part of the report is that it is better
to digitise the healthcare system correctly
than to do it quickly. This was enhanced
by Jeremy Hunt’s speech at the NHS
Innovation Expo last month, where he
acknowledged that trusts would move at
‘different speeds’ and should not be force
into big IT project they could not handle.

CREATING A NATIONAL DIVIDE
Forcing a trust into an IT project beyond that
which they can handle would be catastrophic,
but equally damaging could be devoting time,
money and resources to one trust to digitise
while neglecting another, even if it
is smaller and more challenging
in digital terms. The distance
between the hare and
the tortoise emphasised
the pitfalls of sprinting
away from the crowd,
yet the Ivy League
of NHS exemplars E

Profess
Bob Wa or
suggest chter
current ed that the
trusts t target for all
o
digitise be largely
should d by 2020
b e re
to 2023 laxed

Volume 16.5 | HEALTH BUSINESS MAGAZINE

19

TRANSFORMING THE WAY CLINICIANS WORK

New Point of Care Solution
transforms Vital Signs Capture and
Nursing Assessments in Hospitals
A new Observation Capture solution, which
allows the electronic recording of vital signs,
nursing assessments and associated care
plans at the point of care, has recently been
launched by Hospedia.
Using a handheld tablet device, smart phone, COWS or the Hospedia bedside
terminal, clinical staff can now easily record patient observations, helping
to recognise, escalate and alert medical staff to deteriorating patients in a
more effective and timely way, in line with recommendations from National
Guidelines. The bi-directional data feeds also means that it updates the
ExtraMed Patient Flow System in real time.
This new addition to the already proven Clinical Solutions range from
Hospedia not only provides greater efficiency, but also improves accuracy
in monitoring and recording. The system also caters for the provision of
unlimited assessments and associated care plans, delivering greater Patient
Flow integration and increased management and oversight.

To find out more about how this
could transform your current
hospital processes, visit
www.hospedia.com or contact
info@hospedia.co.uk for a without
obligation demonstration

HOSPITAL BENEFITS
 National Early Warning Scores
are calculated automatically
reducing the risk of errors and
improving patient outcomes
 The automated highlighting
of deteriorating patients to
ward staff, supports early
intervention
 At a glance prompts and task
lists improves compliance
with clinical standards
 The ability for hospitals to
define their own assessments
 Flexible and fully future-proof
 Full audit trail and charting of
results

Information Technology

DIGITAL RECORDS
 seems to be the same method.
When considered in a regional setting,
where one large NHS trust invests, and is
invested in, to enhance its digital offering,
and a smaller, more local hospital is left
with paper records - less reliant on IT and
less trained to operate digitally - then the
vacuum becomes more visible. A patient
that may need to visit both sites for
differing treatments may find that their
records are not easily transferred between
the two. If that patient is elderly, or even
lacking the information or confidence
to discuss their treatments, they may
even end up having unnecessary, or
unnecessarily repetitive, tests being done
simply because their information has not
readily moved from one site to the next.
Now is this the fault of the smaller hospital
or the larger trust? Is the former to blame
for being digitally immature? Or the latter
for being more advanced than its neighbour
and colleague, who can no longer maintain
pace – leaving patents at risk, increasing
waiting times etc? Or is it the fault of the
system that invests time and money into one,
making it an example from which others can
learn, while leaving the other abandoned, an
example of where improvement is needed?
Exemplars create a divide – Hunt himself has
stated that trusts could rise or fall to become
or lose ‘global exemplar’ status. Yes they can
be inspirational and a target for which to
aim, but they can also further the distance
between the digitally literate and illiterate.
Wachter’s review also stated that return
on investment from digitisation is unlikely
to be just financial. It reads: ‘experience has
shown that the short-term ROI is more likely
to come in the form of improvements in safety
and quality than in raw financial terms’. The
statement that ‘the one thing that NHS cannot
afford to do is to remain a largely non-digital
system’ emphasises the reports opinion that
finances shouldn’t be the overwhelming
issue – although how trusts feel about that
is likely to be different to Wachter’s view.
SO WHAT NEXT?
The National Programme for IT in the NHS
(NPfIT), intended at its creation to be the
largest public sector IT project of its kind in
the UK, was marked by opposition, delays
and implementation issues. Although
dismantled by the Conservative‑Liberal
Democrat coalition government in 2011,
the ill fated programme still lingers in the
memory, leading many to believe that
the NHS will always struggle to do IT.
Nonetheless, where NPfIT failed strongest
was the failure to implement national
comprehensive electronic patient record
(EPR) systems. By the spring of 2007, the
programme was due to have delivered
155 systems, but had managed a measly
16 - many of which crashed regularly,
malfunctioned and were unable to connect
to other hospital systems. The scrapping of

NPfIT almost heralded a new start for ERP
systems, so what progress has been made?
The future undeniably lies in deploying an
EPR system and digitising health records.
Taunton and Somerset NHS Foundation
Trust, one of Hunt’s exemplar sites, became
the first NHS trust to go live with an open
source EPR system last year, with the aim
of seeing the open source technology pay
for itself within three years. Further to this,
by 2018, the trust hopes that the system
will save the trust £600,000 a year by going
paperless. The project allowed eight million
records to be migrated into the new system
with only seven individual records needing
to be manually loaded, resulting in minimal
disruption to service delivery. Efficiency and
coordination has consequently improved in the
admission, transfer and discharge of patients
– with real-time bed management and
discharge planning now digitally managed.
Outpatient workflows were redesigned so
that record outcomes and patient waiting lists
are added and changed in real time. Clinic
outcome letters and discharge summaries
are sent electronically to GPs and other care
providers, marking real progress towards
paperless working. Additionally, all care
providers in Somerset are able to access
diagnostic information due to the county-wide
implementation of order communications,
picture archiving and communication system
solutions. Progress is currently being made on
fully paperless nursing and outpatients, and
the trust plans to be completely paperless
by 2019, enabling patients to have full
access to their records and to interact with
the service in a way that meets their needs.
Elsewhere, Salisbury District Hospital
is expecting to go live with a new EPR
system this month, where records will be
instantly visible on any computer within the
Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust and be ‘easily
transferable’ from one provider to another.
As chief executive Peter Hill acknowledged
as a board meeting earlier this month, the
new system ‘ensures staff have faster and
easier access to the right level of information
to look after their patients’. The first phase
of implementation to begin will cover
inpatient care, outpatient care, emergency
department, some clinical documentation,
and pathology and radiology orders/results
reporting. Meanwhile a second phase is

due in July 2017 and will cover electronic
prescribing, medicines administration,
maternity services, and theatres.
ESTABLISHING EPR PRIORITIES
Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation
Trust is rolling out Intersystem’s HealthShare
platform across the region, following a
successful pilot programme. Using the system,
each patient registered in the region will
have a single health record that follows them
regardless of which service they need to see,
with information integrated across acute,
community, social care and GP services.
As for other trusts, a Digital Health News
survey in September of 17 Local Digital
Roadmaps (LDRs) revealed that new EPR
systems top the wish lists in many draft
roadmaps. In the roadmap for NHS Wakefield
Clinical Commissioning Group, the CCG stated
that an EPR that ‘interoperates with systems in
and beyond Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust
is critical to its goals’. Moreover, Merseyside
said that it has long since adopted a ‘strategic
aim to have a common EPR for all adult
services, seamlessly linked with children’s
acute services, community based services and
social care’. Only last month, Royal Liverpool
and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust
digitalised tens of thousands of records ahead
of announcing a new EPR. This is key for the
opening of the New Royal Hospital, scheduled
to open September 2017, which will not have
the capacity to store any paper records.
Work is clearly being done, and the
difference is certainly being recognised in
the trusts that have been able to pursue
the paperless dream. But as the years
click slowly towards 2020, the elitist
approach to distributing funding on a
three tiered level may leave the divide
wider than it is at present. The UK’s most
digitally‑sophisticated hospitals still trail
behind international counterparts, and if
the disparity in our own hospitals widens,
our healthcare digital future may not be
as idealistic as many hope it to be. The
time scale has been reset, the necessary
shortcomings have been voiced, although
not yet answered, but the divide is being
encouraged rather than addressed. L
FURTHER INFORMATION
bit.ly/2eaXHve

USING TECHNOLOGY TO
IMPROVE PATIENT CARE
Adoption of technology to improve patient care and reduce costs
The challenge for the NHS to do more
for less is well recognised. The continued
funding squeeze, rising demand and the
need to safeguard quality, combine to exert
pressure across the entire system, with
none of these factors likely to abate. There
is now wide consensus that health care
needs to change to meet these demands.
Technology can help to respond to the
pressures and enable change. However
despite the potential benefits of technology,
it is generally acknowledged that its adoption
within the health care sector is slow and
disparate. Back in 2004 the Healthcare
Industries Task Force described the NHS as
‘a late and slow adopter of technology’.
The NHS Next Stage Review interim report
in 2007 emphasised the importance of
technology in the NHS and highlighted the
role that technology can play in improving
health outcomes. More recently in October
2014 the NHS five year forward view, by NHS
England, stated as well as the gadgets we
use, change will be as much about different
ways of working and relating to each other,
adding that future solutions will involve
rethinking how health care is organised and
delivered with technology playing its part.
PRINCIPLE BARRIERS
The principal barriers that influence decisions
to adopt technology revolve around
several factors including the procurement
process and the availability of both
financial and organisational resources.
The procurement process within the NHS
is highly complex, presenting many barriers
to the adoption of technology. These include
multiple points of sale, extended and complex
procurement processes, and a tendency to
focus on ‘least cost’ rather than ‘best value’.
With the creation of the Crown Commercial
Service G-Cloud Digital Marketplace,
the procurement process within the
public sector has been simplified.
The G Cloud Framework can be used
by organisations across the UK public
sector including central government, local
government, health, education, devolved
administrations, emergency services,
defence and not-for-profit organisations.
Organisations such as Kirona are
pre-selected as approved suppliers,
thus speeding up the procurement
process for many organisations.
Kirona have enabled social care providers
such as North Lanarkshire Council to improve

22

HEALTH BUSINESS MAGAZINE | Volume 16.5

their quality of health and social care service,
whilst also saving in excess of £1.5m. By
implementing Kirona’s digital workforce
solutions across its Housing Property Services
and Home Support Services the council have
been delighted with the outcomes. Together
with the impressive cost savings the council
has also improved the service for patients
receiving care at home via the Home Support
Team, as well as their social housing tenants.
Added to this they also have the full support
of their workforce who have experienced
improved efficiencies in their day to day roles.
Healthcare providers looking to improve
their workforce productivity, streamline
processes, increase the quality of patient care
can achieve these objectives through Kirona’s
suite of digital workforce software. Firstly,
Dynamic Resource Scheduling (Xmbrace DRS)
optimises the working day of each healthcare
professional, by enabling home visits to be
appointed in the optimum way. Dynamic
intra-day scheduling allows for emergencies
and exceptions to be taken in your stride.
Kirona also enable field-based workers to
remain connected through their Job Manager
mobile application that provide them with
the information they need to deliver patient
care. These mobile applications also reduce
paperwork by capturing information in the
field directly into centralised systems.
DIGITAL WORKFORCE SOLUTIONS
Kirona’s InfoSuite management information
software provides true insight across the entire
operation enabling continuous improvement.
Added to this Kirona also offer Mobile
Device Management software, which enables

your organisation to manage, monitor and
secure mobile devices and data within the
organisation. So if a healthcare worker has
confidential data on a mobile device and
that device is lost, it can be locked remotely
thus ensuring the data remains secure.
By adopting technology such as Kirona’s
digital workforce solutions Hospitals,
Trusts and NHS Services can drive greater
efficiency in the services they deliver, reducing
unnecessary travel time, cutting paperwork
and delivering a far better patient experience.
ABOUT KIRONA
Founded in 2003, Kirona has grown to be
recognised as the leader in delivering digital
workforce solutions. We combine innovative
software development with an exceptional
service to ensure that our technology delivers
significant value to our clients. Kirona
works with a wide range of healthcare
providers including private organisations,
government organisations and local
authorities enabling improved productivity,
enhanced patience care, real time visibility
of workers, and management information
data and analytics. By using Kirona’s Dynamic
Resource Scheduling (DRS), organisations
are able to appoint, schedule and manage
work in an optimum way. With Kirona’s Job
Manager application, field based workers
remain connected and work can be tracked
in real-time; and with InfoSuite true insight
can be gained across the entire operation
enabling continuous improvement. L
FURTHER INFORMATION
www.kirona.com

From implementation
to patient outcomes
Taking place on 1-2 November, EHI Live 2016, the UK’s largest digital health event, will showcase
technology solutions that will address the key concerns of commissioners and clinicians
It will highlight programmes such as the
NHS Innovation Accelerator which will
encourage people to think about how they
can optimise outcomes and make savings
within the constraints of the NHS budget. But
it will also address commissioners’ concerns
about the implications of the increased use
of technology: the impetus for integrated
working means increasing data sharing across
care settings, so there is a need to ensure
the best data security systems are in place.
That’s why EHI Live 2016 will have cyber
security as one of its six core themes in
November. Earlier this year, the Health and
Social Care information Centre (HSCIC)
– now operating under the name of
NHS Digital – introduced the Cyber
Security Programme (CSP) with
the Care Computer Emergency
Response Team (CareCERT)
Project. Its main purpose is
to ‘offer advice and guidance
to support health and social
care organisations to respond
effectively and safely to cyber
security threats’. Such is the
size of the threat across all parts
of government that the Chancellor
made provision for £1.9 billion in the
December 2015 Spending Review to protect
Britain from cyber attack and to develop
its sovereign capabilities in cyber space.

DIGITAL THREAT
Within healthcare, the increasing level of cyber
attack is becoming apparent. Digital Health
has reported on a number of incidents that
have impacted on patient care including a
ransomware attack with a virus locking down
internal files, and an XP virus affecting emails
which forced a trust to postpone operations.
Security is a concern for patients, too.
HSCIC, now NHS Digital, data noted that
as of June 2016, ‘2.2 per cent of patients in
England (around one in 45) have opted out
of information that identifies them being
shared outside of the HSCIC for purposes
beyond direct care’. There were also 1.5
million instances of patients opting out of
information sharing, preventing their records
from being shared outside the practice
for purposes other than direct care.
Visitors to EHI Live will have the opportunity
not only to discuss how CareCERT is

to cyber threats,
but also how cyber
security exists within the
healthcare cloud, and its impact on the rest
of the IT infrastructure. It will also analyse the
costs of safeguarding digital applications.
INVESTING IN TECHNOLOGY
It all fits within a significant period of change
with regards to the approach being taken
in the NHS towards investing in technology.
Simon Stevens, NHS England’s chief executive,
has indicated that despite, or because of,
funding pressures, the NHS approach to new
technology will be ‘energising and exciting’.
Stevens told the NHS Confederation in June
that capital is ‘incredibly tight’ and the
existing plans to redesign care may face
significant financial pressures. Although
there is a commitment in the Five Year
Forward View to increase funding, ‘a lot of
that extra purchasing power is back‑ended
towards the 2019, 2020 period’.
That said, the groundwork is being
laid now and there are already some
great opportunities. Back in January, NHS
England announced the NHS Innovation

Test Beds. Working in partnership with
organisations such as Verily (formerly
Google Life Sciences), IBM and Philips,
the scheme is focusing initially on care
for older patients, people with long term
conditions and mental health patients.
Frontline health and care workers are being
encouraged to ‘pioneer and evaluate the
use of novel combinations of interconnected
devices such as wearable monitors, data
analysis and ways of working which
will help patients stay well and monitor
their conditions themselves at home’.
In May, NHS England published ‘Securing
Excellence in GP IT Services: Operating Model
3rd edition (2016-18)’. This latest edition
‘includes expanded core and mandated
GP IT requirements – making it clear what
general practice should be able to expect
from IT service delivery arrangements,
together with driving digital adoption through
maturity assurance, providing a new maturity
assurance framework to assess progress
towards digital adoption – the Digital
Primary Care Maturity Assurance model’.
Then in June, the NHS Innovation Accelerator
(NIA) opened another round of applications,
inviting healthcare innovators to address
the challenges around prevention, early
intervention and LTC management. Stevens
wants to see innovations that will make E

Volume 16.5 | HEALTH BUSINESS MAGAZINE

23

EHI Live

EVENT PREVIEW
 a difference ‘diffused much more quickly,
much more widely’. And from April 2017,
he announced that ‘a piece will be added
to the national tariff system specifically for
new med tech innovations that have been
shown to be cost-saving or help patients
with supported self-management’.
This ‘information and technology tariff’
will ‘accelerate uptake of new medtech
devices and apps for patients with diabetes,
heart conditions, asthma, sleep disorders,
and other chronic health conditions, and
many other areas such as infertility and
pregnancy, obesity reduction and weight
management, and common mental health
disorders’. There is no reason, therefore,
why EHI Live will not be able to capitalise
on the opportunities being presented.
THE INDUSTRY RESPONSE
EHI Live is now in the second year of
management by the Informa Life Sciences
Exhibitions team, the people behind
Arab Health, the world’s second largest
medical event. Names already signed up
for EHI Live 2016 include: Philips; Dell;
EPIC; Intersystems; Imprivata; Cerner; GE;
Siemens; SystemC; TPP; and Lexmark. NHS
Digital will have a significant presence, in
part to help establish itself following its
rebranding from HSCIC to clarify its role as
the national information and technology
partner for the health and care system.
Changes being made to the conference
line up mean that the conference
streams will be: EHI Keynotes; Big Data;
Integration & Interoperability; Open Source;
Governance and Data Standards; Cyber
Security; Health & Social Care Integration;
Mental Health; Annual CCIO Conference
(hosted by Digital Health); and Annual CIO
Conference (hosted by Digital Health)
Like cyber security, the mental health
conference is another new conference for
2016. Long a Cinderella subject for the NHS,
mental health has been given much greater
attention in the recent NHS reforms. Steven’s
speech in June gave it due prominence, saying
that savings being made in other parts of
the NHS will be used to increase the spend
on mental health services and community
services, and implement the recommendations
of the mental health task force.
Mental health priorities over the coming
year include work to reduce out of area
treatments and to connect secondary and
tertiary mental health services; to reduce
waiting times; and to expand child and
adolescent mental health services.
In terms of changes to the format, Josué
Paulos, EHI Live exhibition manager, said that
‘the biggest and most exciting change to EHI is
the layout of the exhibition with purpose built
theatres on the showfloor to better connect
the leading content with leading solutions
providers and to allow better networking’.
He added: “We are happy to be offering
the CIO and CCIO conferences once again

Such is the size of the threat across all parts of
government that the December 2015 Spending
Review made provision for £1.9 billion to protect
Britain from cyber attack and to develop its
sovereign capabilities in cyber space
which will bring those senior decision makers
back to EHI Live. And for the first time, the
UK Clinical Research Collaboration will be
hosting a closed meeting at EHI live which
will bring up to 150 clinicians to EHI.”
The UKCRC was established in 2004 ‘with
the aim of re-engineering the clinical research
environment in the UK’. It brings together
the major stakeholders that influence clinical
research in the UK - research funding bodies,
academia, the NHS, regulatory bodies, and
industry covering bioscience, healthcare and
pharmaceuticals industries, as well as patients.
GETTING GOOD VALUE
The changes are being introduced in response
to feedback from the 4,000 exhibitors and
visitors at the 2015 show. It’s clear that
EHI Live is regarded as one of the UK’s big
three e-Health must attend events. More
than nine out of 10 (91 per cent) exhibitors
said EHI Live was successful in meeting
their overall objectives, with 86 per cent
saying the show generated promising new
leads for their business. A similar number
(88 per cent) rated the quality of visitors
as very good and 93 per cent said they
intended to come to the 2016 show.
More than two thirds of visitors said
the main reason for attending the event
was for networking and industry updates.
One of the networking innovations
introduced in 2015 will be returning - the
Big Red Bus bar, creating an informal
but eye-catching networking area.
Exhibitors will have a wide range of
sponsorship and speaking opportunities.
This will include ‘The Pipeline’, 30-minute
supplier-led presentation sessions with
details publicised on the EHI Live websites,
in the show guide and on-site signage.
One of the big themes at last year’s
event was the ambition of a paperless
NHS by 2018. In April, the results of
the digital maturity self-assessment for

secondary care providers was published.
The data suggests that while the majority of
organisations are well over half way in their
readiness, most organisations believe their
capabilities still have a long way to go.
Paul Rice, head of Technology Strategy in
the Digital Health team in NHS England,
has said that the results reflect that ‘while
it’s necessary to have all the technology
available, it is far from sufficient to ensure
benefits are being optimised’. It clearly
presents a picture of opportunity.
CELEBRATING ACHIEVEMENT
Organised by Informa Global Exhibitions,
the 10th anniversary of the EHI awards
has paid tribute to an extraordinary array
of talent in the NHS who are attempting
to bolster efficiency and patient care
with state-of-the-art IT initiatives. The
unique awards provide a snapshot of
what is happening nationwide and help
drive forward changes in the industry
through a healthy dose of competition.
The winners were announced in London
on 29 September, with Salford Royal NHS
Foundation Trust named as this year’s
winner for the ‘Digital NHS Trust or Health
Board of the Year’ award for it’s Roadmap
to a Digital Health Enterprise project.
The EHI awards, hosted by comedian Ruby
Wax at London’s Lancaster Hotel celebrated
the vital, ground-breaking IT work carried
out in the UK’s health sector. The awards
also acknowledged the efforts being made
to ensure NHS England’s target of making
the NHS paperless by 2020 is met.
A record 210 entries were received this
year which the judges had to narrow
down to three finalists for each category.
A full list of entries and winners is
available on the EHI Live website. L
FURTHER INFORMATION
www.ehilive.co.uk

Helping you to improve
the quality of patient care
whilst reducing costs
Founded in 2003, Kirona has
grown to be recognised as
a leader in delivering digital
workforce solutions. The
company combines innovative
software development with an
exceptional service to ensure
that its technology delivers
significant value to clients.
Kirona works with a wide
range of healthcare providers
including private organisations,
government organisations
and local authorities enabling
improved productivity, enhanced
patience care, real time visibility
of workers, and management
information data and analytics.
By using Kirona’s Dynamic
Resource Scheduling (DRS),
organisations are able to appoint,
schedule and manage work in
the optimum way. With Kirona’s
Job Manager application, field
based workers remain connected
and work can be tracked in realtime; and with InfoSuite true
insight can be gained across

the entire operation enabling
continuous improvement.
Kirona also offer healthcare
providers mobile device
management; enabling
your organisation to secure,
control and manage the use
of mobile devices and data
across your organisation.
Kirona is a G-Cloud 8 Crown
Commercial Service Supplier
and is ISO 9001 Quality
Management and ISO 20000-1
Information Technology Service
Management accredited.
To find out more visit Kirona’s
stand at EHI Live on 1-2
November at stand 1F20.
FURTHER INFORMATION
Kirona.com

Leaders in private cellular
solutions in Europe
Druid’s dedicated 4G coverage
technology is ideal for healthcare
environments as a single wireless
network to handle all voice,
messaging and broadband needs.
Compared to Wifi, private 4G
offers a better Quality of Service
(QoS), it’s more secure and it is
specifically designed to deliver
mobile services as opposed
to wireless services. Druid has
already deployed its P4G core
in leading edge autonomous
vehicle test sites delivering
services to vehicles travelling
at speeds up to 300Km.
By easily integrating the
latest nurse call alarm servers
and location based technology
Druid turn the mobile phone
into a pager, location device
and reporting tool. The Druid
optimised messaging center is
essential to the delivery of critical
messages and alarms. Providing
100 per cent accurate information
for care audit trails and analysis.
Druid’s 4G core application
comprises a complete Evolved
Packet Core (EPC) and IP

Multimedia Subsystem IMS.
The IMS enables delivery of
IP multimedia services such
as voice over LTE (VoLTE) and
other LTE advanced services.
Druid’s IMS also enables
integration with third party IP
based enterprise applications
allowing for rich value added
services to be supported. Druid’s
open RESTful interface is the
gateway to the core application
offering tight integration
with such applications.
FURTHER INFORMATION
Tel: 353 1 201 4752
www.druidsoftware.com

Homerton University Hospital
NHS Foundation Trust (Homerton)
in east London has extended the
use of BridgeHead Software’s
Independent Clinical Archive
(ICA), HealthStore™, to integrate
images into its Electronic Patient
Record (EPR) in an effort to
realise its digital strategy.
Homerton initially deployed
BridgeHead’s ICA, HealthStore,
as the primary data repository
for radiology images due to
the ending of its national PACS
contract in 2015. Since then, the
Trust has extended the ICA’s use
to integrate image data into its
Cerner Millennium EPR. Clinicians
can now view all radiology
images, alongside patient
notes, in the EPR, rather than
logging into the ICA separately,
saving them valuable time
searching for patient information
and providing a prompt and
seamless level of patient care.
To continue on its digital
transformation path, Homerton

iMDsoft is a global
leader in clinical
information systems.
Hospitals and health
networks worldwide,
including more than 20
NHS hospitals, use the
MetaVision CIS for critical
care. The company’s mobile
electronic observation system,
MetaVision SafeTrack™, offers
advanced options for early
identification of patients at
risk for lethal conditions.
The system provides smart
alerts for sepsis and AKI, based
on NICE guidelines, which
prompt clinicians to take
action. Tools for screening and
assessments make it easier
to check for conditions such
as venous thromboembolism
(VTE) and to calculate scores
such as MUST and GCS.
Hospitals can create additional
alerts or screening forms for
any condition they define.
In addition, MetaVision

now hopes to expand the use
of the ICA to archive all other
departmental image data. The
next areas under consideration
are cardiology, medical
photography and endoscopy.
Niall Canavan, director of IT and
Systems, Homerton University
Hospital NHS Foundation Trust,
commented: “We have proved
how simple it is to use the EPR
to call radiology images from
the ICA, so we look forward
to replicating this with data
from other departments.”
FURTHER INFORMATION
Tel: 01372 221950
www.bridgeheadsoftware.com

SafeTrack offers all the
advantages of a mobile electronic
observation solution, ensuring
faster intervention for patients in
need. It helps nurses document
vital signs and observations at
the bedside, calculates early
warning scores and provides
options for immediate escalations
to caregivers. Nurses work more
effectively and can prioritise care
with tools for task management
and shift handover. The system
processes all of the information
that is collected to generate
reports that help improve
hospital performance.
FURTHER INFORMATION
Tel: +44 7500 839677
Mike.Carey@imd-soft.com

Volume 16.5 | HEALTH BUSINESS MAGAZINE

27

Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve got enough
on your plate.
You can
trust Wilo.

The Wilo-Stratos GIGA is a high efficiency pump developed
for heating, air-conditioning and cooling systems for both
commercial and industrial building services.
You can trust Wilo.

Going electric – Mark Armstrong-Read (left) and Richard Lyne
from Derbyshire Community Health Services NHS Foundation
Trust test out the new charging point at Walton Hospital

Written by Rachel Brooks, Health Business

SUSTAINABILITY

Making savings
while saving the
environment
The Securing Healthy Returns report has calculated potential
NHS savings of £414 million and the potential to cut one
million tonnes of carbon emissions every year by 2020.
Health Business’ Rachel Brooks explores the research
cla
In a time where the NHS is facing a myriad of
challenges, ranging from dwindling numbers
of health professionals and a burgeoning
financial deficit, it is wise to be conscious
of the numerous ways in which the healthcare
system can implement strategies to ensure
the long term sustainability of the service.
With over 1.3 million people working
in the NHS alone, the health service is both
a significant component of the regional
economy and owner of a vast carbon footprint.
Data shows that the NHS is the largest public
sector contributor to climate change in
Europe, emitting 22.8 million tonnes of carbon

with the Healthcare Financial Management
Association (HFMA), outlines a number of
methods which can be used to mitigate the
environmental effects of the NHS, whilst
also making impressive financial savings.
Securing Healthy Returns draws attention
to a series of instances where the health
and care system has the potential to
improve sustainability through financial and
environmental means, to aid decision makers
in making the right choices for their healthcare
business. In fact, data from the study claims
the health sector could save £414 million
per year, along with an annual reduction of
one million tonnes of CO2e by 2020.
The research encourages
managers of healthcare
organisations to assume a
kaleidoscopic approach
to implementing
sustainability initiatives,
to choose financial
investments that
address social, economic
and environmental
issues, over those which
merely cut the numbers.

Data
ims tha
t the
health s
e
c
t
o
r
save £4
14 milli could
year, an
o
d an an n per
reducti
nual
million on of one
to
CO2e by nnes of
2020
THE FIVE YEAR

dioxide equivalents
(CO2e) each year.
The Sustainable
Development Unit
(SDU) is accountable
to NHS England and
Public Health England
and exists to support the
NHS, public health and social
care to embed and promote
the three elements of sustainable
development – environmental, social and
financial. The SDU’s Securing Healthy
Returns report, compiled in coordination

FORWARD VIEW
As voiced by Sandra Easton, chair
of the HFMA, we need to ‘exploit the
financial opportunities of being socially and
environmentally sustainable’, in order E

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SUSTAINABILITY
 to meet the £22 billion efficiency savings
outlined in the Five Year Forward View.
At the end of last year, NHS England shared
new guidance directing every health
and care system in England to produce a
Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP).
The STPs should be designed to set out how
local services will evolve to become more
sustainable over the next five years. The report
advised moving towards more long term
principles of improvement, as opposed to short
term routes involving quick fixes. It claimed
that using this technique in areas ranging
from procurement, public health and better
models of care can significantly improve the
NHS’s financial and environmental forecast.
CARBON CUTTING INTERVENTIONS
Examples of sustainable measures
were included in the SDU’s Carbon and Cost
Benefit Curve, which displayed 35 carbon
cutting interventions. The graph measured
the tonnes of CO2 emissions saved against
the cost per tonne of CO2 emissions saved.
The resulting data highlighted that the most
dramatic savings were made, both financially
and environmentally, through measures
such as waste prevention, waste reduction,
alternative models of care and staff behaviour.
The top ten ranked interventions which
sustained a top figure of savings and
a reduction in CO2 included: theatre kits
in hospitals – reducing packaging; sugar

health and well-being, health sector
organisations have a responsibility
to select financial processes which
minimise negative impacts on local
public health and social value.
It recommended that an integrated
approach to sustainability should:
support local employment in the
supply chain through sustainable
procurement; support innovation
and participation in efficiency
through staff and community
engagement; protect local public
health through reduced air,
water and ground pollution;
and use investment in NHS
infrastructure to leverage social
value. This could be done by
connecting a new energy plant to a
district heating network to supply low cost
heat to people in fuel poverty, for example.
The report also highlighted the importance
of using Organisational Sustainable
Development Management Plans (SDMPs),
which are in place in most NHS organisations.
The aim of SDMPs is to bring together
measures that drive down the use and cost
of finite resources, as directed by the NHS
Constitution Commitment, Number 6, which
states: “The NHS is committed to providing
best value for taxpayers’ money – it is
committed to providing the most effective, fair
and sustainable use of finite resources. Public

Data shows that the NHS is the largest public
sector contributor to climate change in Europe,
emitting 22.8 million tonnes of carbon dioxide
equivalents each year
reduction in soft drinks; combined heat and
power (CHP); reducing medicine waste; active
staff travel; psychiatric liaison; biomass boilers;
effective use of long-acting injections; driver
training for fuel efficiency and safety; and
reducing social isolation in older people.
For example, the graph plotted potential
savings made from active staff travel, which
involves encouraging staff and visitors to
walk, cycle or use public transport to get
to sites. The benefits from switching to this
mode of transport could mean the NHS would
generate £2.9 million in savings, thanks to
reduced vehicle use and air pollution and
added health benefits from exercise.
COLLABORATIVE WORKING
IS SUCCESSFUL WORKING
The report outlined the importance of
collaborative working to ensure smooth
and effective implementation. The analysis
pointed to the importance of considering
the wider benefits when contemplating
a particular sustainability initiative. Since
the financial decision made by health
organisations will ultimately impact on local

funds for healthcare will be devoted solely to
the benefit of the people that the NHS serves.”
Another measure which performed well
on the graph included the installation of
combined heat and power (CHP) systems which
generates usable low cost, low carbon heat
and electricity. Rampton Hospital replaced its
coal fired heat plant with a CHP unit and a
wood chip boiler. Following its implementation,
the trust managed to reduce energy costs by
44 per cent, making an annual saving of around
£790,000 and cutting 8,614 tonnes of CO2e.
COST CUTTING CASE STUDIES
A further case study from the SDU documents
the savings made by Sussex Community
NHS Foundation Trust. Staff across the trust
were travelling almost six million business
miles per year, representing a collective
cost of £3 million and producing a similarly
significant quantity of carbon emissions.
In order to help alleviate the costs, the trust
created a Business Travel Plan with resources
to assist staff in reducing their business
mileage. The strategy involved encouraging
staff to book one of 15 low emission vehicles

for use during
work hours, allowing them to
travel to work on foot, by bike or on public
transport. As a result of the Travel Bureau
initiatives, the trust was able to shed 949,500
miles from its business mileage, translating
to a saving of £500,000 and 60 tonnes
of CO2e, in the first year after launch.
Meanwhile, a Worcestershire County
Council and local CCGs programme
launched a Social Impact Bond, whereby
social investors covered the upfront costs
for social enterprises and charities to deliver
new and exciting programmes to address
the needs of vulnerable groups and reduce
social isolation for 3,000 older people. The
programme will deliver £1.3 million in direct
annual savings and 244 Quality Adjusted Life
Years (QALYs – worth £15 million in avoided
social cost), reducing CO2e by 217 tonnes.
MORE PROGRESS NEEDED
The report maintained that many organisations
have already made progress in aligning financial
and environmental sustainability. However,
in order to fully reap the financial, social
and environmental benefits and potentially
save £414 million annually, the report calls
for improved collaborative working with
finance, sustainability facilities, procurement,
commissioning and between all health staff.
Michael Brodie, Finance and Commercial
director for Public Health England,
commented: “In addition to the legal and
scientific reasons for taking sustainable
development and climate change seriously,
there are equally important financial and
organisational reasons for action. In PHE, we
have already saved millions of pounds and
reduced our carbon footprint by rationalising
processes and estate, empowering our staff
and the public with the latest opportunities
in IT. We will continue to work with our
partners in health and local government to
create the right conditions for a fair, healthy
and sustainable future for us all.” L
FURTHER INFORMATION
www.sduhealth.org.uk

MANAGING THE
ANTICOAGULATION
TREATMENT PROCESS
Mobile computing solution transforms the management of anticoagulation treatments
Buckshaw Village Surgery aims to provide
the highest quality of healthcare services
to patients in the area. A large proportion
of these patients are elderly, many with
dementia. The previous pathway for
anticoagulation treatment would include
unnecessary handling of patients in clinics,
delays in analysis and the prescription of
medication. This pathway required patients
to travel to the nearest acute, phlebotomy or
anticoagulation clinic. A venous sample was
taken on a first-come-first-served basis, sent to
the pathology for analysis and the patient sent
home. The patient’s yellow dosing book stayed
with the clinic and the INR result entered,
before being mailed to the patient or GP. The
patient was then called to the GP practice.
On collection of the prescription, the yellow
book was returned to the patient, providing
their daily dosing schedule and warfarin
medication was dispensed. This process
was repeated as dictated by the patient
needs, taking between three and five days.
SOLUTION
The deployment of a comprehensive
mobile computing solution enabled the
delivery of a domiciliary, single point of
care service. The process time is reduced
significantly, and the solution allows for
a simple and cost effective pathway.
The mobile working solution is based on a
Motion C5 Tablet PC, running a full EMIS Web
client with Electronic Prescribing enabled,
linked with the INRstar decision making
software, alongside a mobile diagnostic
tool for measuring INR results. Healthcare
assistants can now visit patients at home,
carrying a mobile diagnostic device and a
Motion Tablet PC running INRstar and EMIS
Web. The simple thumb prick is taken at the
patient’s home, and can be analysed in real
time, with the result providing an instant
dosing schedule for the patient’s yellow
booklet, and an update for the clinical record.
The healthcare assistant is able to provide
a daily warfarin medication regime, which
is authorised remotely by a responsible GP.
Medication is electronically requested and
prescribed, with clinical records updated in
real time. Thanks to the smart capabilities of
the Motion Tablet PC, the pharmacy receives
the prescription, dispenses it, and delivers it

32

HEALTH BUSINESS MAGAZINE | Volume 16.5

to the patient. Equipped with a mobile label
printer connected wirelessly to the Motion
C5 Tablet, the healthcare assistant is able to
print off labels with a correct and up-to-date
warfarin dosage schedule. This negates the
need to handwrite this into the yellow booklet,
hence eradicating clinical risks further.
WALK-IN SERVICE
In early 2016, Buckshaw Village Surgery
saw the launch of three new purpose-built
surgeries for the delivery of multi-care services
to its residents. Since then, patients can visit
the ‘drop-in’ clinic for the administration of
their anticoagulation treatment, using the
same technology as the mobile solution used
at the patient’s home. Being able to use the
same hardware for both the surgery based
drop- in sessions and domiciliary home visits
ensures maximum use of the new hardware
giving a greater return on investment.
BENEFITS
In allowing the management of the
anticoagulation medication to be
delivered either through a ‘drop-in’
clinic, or at the patient’s home, a greater
flexibility is given to patients.
For vulnerable elderly patients, many
suffering from dementia, the ability to deliver
treatment in an environment in which they
feel comfortable and safe is an important

consideration. In enabling the healthcare
assistant to manage the anticoagulation
treatment process at the patient’s home
means greater convenience for patients,
and a much less invasive procedure. Taking
treatment and assessments to the patients
also results in a much greater quality of care.
In delivering a shorter and more effective
process, time savings are considerable too.
The fact that medication is available within
four hours and can be delivered to the patient
improves warfarin compliance. The real time
decisions and instant prescribing method
improves the service patients receive as
well as the quality of clinical treatment.
Commenting on the solution, Brian Hann,
business & operations director, said: “As an
organisation, we have seen massive reduction
in handling times and associated costs since
the introduction of this solution. It has allowed
us to reduce clinical risk significantly and
compliance to warfarin medication has vastly
improved. Service costs have been reduced
too, eradicating the previous double handing
of patients, and the faster process ultimately
means that staff are more productive and
patients given a greater quality of care.“ L
FURTHER INFORMATION
Tel: 0161 776 4009
nhs@dakotais.co.uk
www.dakotais.co.uk

Maximise your budget
– buy more for less
Having access to the right medical equipment
is critical for the delivery of safe and efficient
patient care, with advancements in technology
delivering improvements in both productivity
and health outcomes. However many NHS
trusts have ageing medical equipment
which is exacerbated by the current financial
position of the NHS. Understanding the
pressures facing trusts, NHS Supply Chain’s
Capital Solutions team are working to
help trusts maximise their budgets to help
acquire the latest medical equipment.
The extent of the Capital funding challenge
facing trusts was highlighted in a report from
The Kings Fund, published last July. The report
spoke of the ‘growing tendency to redirect
capital spending to shore up revenue budgets
and support day-to-day running costs with
£640 million switched from capital to revenue
in 2014/15 and £950 million in 2015/16.’
Jason Lavery, vice president of Capital
Solutions at NHS Supply Chain, explains:

“Managing capital expenditure is an ongoing challenge that every Trust faces.
The NHS is faced with significant financial
challenges. Yet at the same time, more and
more medical equipment needs replacing
to ensure clinicians can access the latest
technological advancements. We understand
this and are working across the NHS to help
trusts maximise their budget, deliver savings
and make the right spending decisions.”
By purchasing their capital equipment
through NHS Supply Chain, individual
trusts can use the combined buying power
of the NHS to share in leveraged savings,
driving best value for money and deriving
maximum benefit for patients and staff.
CAPITAL EQUIPMENT FUND
Since March 2012, over £61 million in
incremental savings have been delivered back
to the NHS through the Department of Health’s
Capital Equipment Fund. This fund, developed

by the Department of Health (DH), the NHS
Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) and
NHS Supply Chain, was implemented to allow
NHS Supply Chain to buy medical equipment
in bulk and make the best possible use of
NHS buying power. It is accessible for all NHS
Supply Chain Medical Equipment frameworks
and has delivered significant incremental
savings back to the NHS, particularly on the
Radiology and Radiotherapy frameworks
where there has been increased focus due to
the high cost of purchasing this equipment.
Although the benefits of large scale
procurement on areas such as Linear
Accelerators and MRI scanners are more
visible, the importance of lower value medical
equipment is also recognised. Following the
mantra ‘pennies make pounds’ a specialist
team of Capital Planning Coordinators
have developed aggregation techniques for
lower value equipment categories, utilising
the DH Fund as a financing vehicle to E

Written by NHS Supply Chain

Savings are the holy grail for hospital trusts. The NHS Supply Chain discuss best
practice for managing medical equipment in a financially constrained environment

Case Study: Leeds Teaching Hospital NHS Trust
Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
recognised the need to meet rapid
advances in medical technology across
multiple clinical areas in order to future
proof their patient services for the long
term. They had to overcome budget
restraints, and needed to reassess
requirements, and prioritise replacement
within challenging timescales.
Their project sought to replace the
obsolete and ageing medical equipment,
introduce innovative technologies to future
proof patient services for the long term,
and optimise savings to ensure best value.
The trust worked in partnership with
NHS Supply Chain to benefit from
their framework agreements, that are
compliant with EU Public Procurement
regulations, gain access to the Department
of Health (DH) Capital Equipment
Fund, and extend potential savings
by leveraging national demand with
multiple trusts (multi-trust aggregation).
Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
consequently achieved £1.3 million
in total savings from MTA, the DH
Capital Equipment Fund and framework
discounts. Utilisation of savings realised

St James’s University Hospital, Leeds

were reinvestment back into clinical
areas with budget limitations, to procure
additional equipment which would
not have otherwise been purchased.
Innovative equipment and technologies
were also rolled out trust-wide.
By adopting a partnership approach
with NHS Supply Chain and providing
a dedicated working group with the
power to make decisions, Leeds Teaching
Hospitals NHS Trust, successfully delivered
the project with minimal difficulties.
Combining their procurement arm, with
NHS Supply Chain’s knowledge, insights
into routes to market and access to
additional savings opportunities, opened

up new possibilities. This provision of
information, dialogue across multiple
stakeholders and NHS Supply Chain’s
engagement enabled maximisation of
savings through framework volume
discounts, the DH Capital Equipment
Fund and MTA; alongside the evaluation
and delivery of ‘best fit’ equipment.
All of which added value to the Trust,
enabling successful project delivery.
Through Leeds Teaching Hospitals
NHS Trust sharing their equipment
plan data, NHS Supply Chain were able
to cross check this with other Trusts
nationally, and identify trends and
requirements that could be aggregated
to achieve additional savings.
David Brettle, head of Medical
Physics and Engineering, Leeds
Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, said:
“Providing best in class medical
equipment and service to patients
demanded we update our asset base
as a priority. NHS Supply Chain has
the skill and flexibility to deliver
savings. They are best placed
to flex their muscles and have the
skills to negotiate MTA deals.”

Volume 16.5 | HEALTH BUSINESS MAGAZINE

33

Industry
Partner

BUDGETS
 establish Multi-Trust Aggregation (MTA).
MTA is a mechanism which combines the
requirements for a particular device from a
specific supplier across multiple trusts and
aligns procurement activity to allow customers
to take advantage of volume discounts.
Since the first MTA deal in November 2014,
participation has grown to include 135

trust, believes wouldn’t have been possible
without the support of NHS Supply Chain.
Booth commented: “I am very happy
with the service provided and the proactive
approach that NHS Supply Chain has
adopted for the MTA and DH deals. It
has helped us to achieve savings that
otherwise would have alluded us.”

By purchasing their capital equipment
through NHS Supply Chain, individual trusts
can use the combined buying power of the
NHS to share in leveraged savings, driving
best value for money and deriving
maximum benefit for patients and staff
trusts and 18 suppliers who have supported
the delivery of procurement aggregation
across 21 different equipment areas. In
total an incremental saving of £1,441,195
has been delivered back to the NHS.
East Kent Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
is one of the 135 trusts that have benefitted
from MTA. Since June 2015, the trust has
achieved £36,735 savings due to participating
in eight MTA deals across five equipment
areas which Adam Booth, buyer for the

The increasing success of MTA is largely
attributed to the introduction of the Regional
Collaborative Workshops. Hosted by NHS
Supply Chain, these workshops bring
together stakeholders from procurement,
Electro Bio Medical Engineering (EBME) and
finance to discuss purchasing requirements
and aggregation opportunities in order
to generate savings back to their trust.
University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust
has benefitted from the workshops so much

so that future opportunities are already
being considered. Andrew Hawkins, category
manager at University Hospitals of Leicester
NHS Trust, said: “The workshops have been
very informative and have provided insights to
equipment modalities where potential savings
can be achieved by aggregating demand
across the collaborative. To date we have been
involved in eight MTA’s, however, this has
the potential to increase as we look to the
wider collaborative sharing 2016/17 plans.”
To further develop the MTA process, an
Aggregation Calendar has been produced
which combines trust requirements on a
larger scale in order to drive further savings.
An example of this is the aggregation
of neonatal and diathermy equipment
where 11 trusts from four different regions
aligned requirements and benefitted from
a total incremental saving of £17,900.
NHS Supply Chain is committed to
supporting the NHS to achieve savings
across medical equipment categories
using various savings levers including
MTA. Sharing requirements and working
in partnership allows the Capital Solutions
team to continue to deliver and improve
the savings achieved enabling trusts to
fully utilise their Capital expenditure. L
FURTHER INFORMATION
www.supplychain.nhs.uk/capital

Brexit and the
NHS: where
are we now?
With the NHS featuring heavily in this year’s EU referendum
debate, Kate Ling, of the NHS Confederation’s European Office,
looks at the NHS European workforce in a post-Brexit world
First and foremost – the UK is still a full
member of the European Union, so nothing is
going to change in the near future for EU staff
working in the health service. Negotiations
on our ‘exit package’ will not begin until
the UK government officially informs the
EU that it wishes to withdraw from the EU
(under Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty). For a
minimum of two years after this, all current
EU legislation, including employment law,
will still apply. Domestic legislation deriving
from EU law will remain in place unless
or until actively repealed. And during this
time the residence and employment status
of EU nationals will remain unaffected,
as will free movement across the EU.
BREXIT – WHAT NEXT?
The implications of Brexit for EU citizens
working in the UK is dependent on the type of
exit the UK makes from the European Union.

A ‘soft’ Brexit would largely
preserve the status quo,
retaining the UK’s access
to the single market and
freedom of movement
for workers across the
EU without visa or work
permit requirements.
Current employment
legislation, including
the European Working
Time Directive, would still
apply, as would the current
cross-border healthcare rules
entitling UK citizens to healthcare in
EU countries (and vice-versa). A ‘soft’ Brexit
would still require the UK to contribute to
the EU budget, in a similar way to Norway.
On the contrary, a ‘hard’ Brexit would
not require further contributions to the EU
budget: the overall economic impact of

such an exit is however unquantifiable, and
expert predictions vary. This form of Brexit
would leave the UK free to determine its
own laws. The UK would be able to amend
employment legislation (for example) if we
so desired, but domestic contracts would
remain in place until re-negotiated.
Even if the UK leaves the EU in a ‘hard’
Brexit and migration policies overall become
harder, the UK government can, if it so
chooses, take steps to protect EU nationals
already working in the NHS and to reassure
them their future is secure. They can also
devise rules, such as shortage occupation
exemptions, to ensure a continuing future
pipeline for vital sectors such as healthcare.
If and when that priority has been
guaranteed, then Brexit could present
both threats and opportunities
for the NHS workforce.
An ‘inbetween’ or ‘bespoke’
agreement for Brexit is
a possibility, although
European leaders
have stated there
is no access to the
single market without
free movement.
It’s impossible
however to predict
what compromises or
exceptions could emerge
during the negotiating
process, and whether or not the
EU will want to take a hard stance against
the UK ‘pour encourager les autres’?

Written by Kate Ling, Senior European Policy Manager, NHS Confederation European Office

BREXIT

The
NHS wa
the hea s at
pre-refert of the
debate, rendum
remain and it must
at t
of the Bhe heart
negotia rexit
tions

THE NHS CONTEXT
The NHS is currently facing massive financial
and service pressures which E
Volume 16.5 | HEALTH BUSINESS MAGAZINE

37

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BREXIT
 pre-date the EU referendum. The challenges
posed by the Carter and Willis report, the
need for greater health and social care
integration and new models of care to cope
with an ageing population, the challenge
of delivering seven-day services and of
developing Sustainability and Transformation
plans (STPs) is more than enough, without
any added complications from Brexit.
There are varying predictions of the likely
impact of Brexit on the UK economy. Clearly a
‘soft’ Brexit would have a lesser impact than
a ‘hard’ Brexit. And although the UK economy
is relatively buoyant compared with the
Eurozone, most economists predict that lower
economic growth is likely in the short term,
which will require difficult decisions about
public spending. The implications of this for
NHS funding are significant, given that £1 in
every £5 of UK taxes is spent on the NHS.
THE EUROPEAN WORKFORCE
The NHS is an attractive employer for many
EU nationals: UK salaries are higher than
in several EU countries, especially Eastern
member states. Austerity and cuts abroad
(Ireland, Greece, Spain, Portugal, Italy) have
given rise to a lack of jobs in home countries
– a significant ‘push’ factor for healthcare
professionals. In addition, the NHS has a
high reputation and offers the experience

of working alongside top clinicians and
researchers in world class institutions.
Consequently, European nationals make
up around five per cent of the total NHS
workforce, with this proportion much
higher in London, the South East and in
specialist trusts. This varies by staff group,
but includes around 10 per cent of the
NHS medical workforce – almost 30,000
doctors. Furthermore four per cent of UK
medical students are EU nationals. The
evidence that the UK is already underdoctored is indisputable, with multiple
rota gaps and failure to fill 42 per
cent of consultant physician posts – in
some trusts, over 40 per cent of locum
consultants are EU-trained. The most
important workforce priority, whatever
form Brexit takes, is to ensure those EU
nationals already in the NHS don’t leave
either voluntarily or as a result of changes
to migration policy and legislation.
As well as ensuring that EU nationals
who are already working in the NHS do
not leave the UK, there are concerns EU
nationals may be put off coming to work in
the UK – especially during the two uncertain
years of Brexit negotiations. Workforce
leaders in the NHS have highlighted
their fears that this may exacerbate staff
shortages, inflate agency costs and threaten

In the immediate, short-term future NHS
employers and trade unions have banded
together to ram home the message that the NHS
welcomes and values EU workers

planned service delivery, all within a likely
context of tightening overall funding.
In the immediate, short-term future
NHS employers and trade unions have
banded together to ram home the
message that the NHS welcomes and
values EU workers. We must reassure
them, provide support and guidance and
campaign for their ‘right to remain’.
POST-BREXIT IMPERATIVES
The newly-formed Cavendish Coalition, an
alliance of health and social care organisations
including (amongst others) NHS Employers
and provider networks, trade unions and
professional bodies, is doing just this. The
coalition’s members aim to support the NHS
workforce pre and post-Brexit by creating
training places and jobs locally, while
promoting good employment practice to
attract and retain both home-grown and
international talent. It is advocating to the
UK government for the ‘right to remain’
for EU health and social care workers, and
for a future migration policy which will
support world class services and research.
The prospect of Brexit redoubles the
urgency of existing initiatives such as
the ‘Talent for Care’ drive to expand
massively the number of apprenticeships
in the NHS both for younger and more
mature candidates, offering opportunities
for existing local staff as well as new
recruits. Proposals to pilot new roles
such as ‘nursing associates’ and for
new pathways into nursing may offer
opportunities for skilled healthcare staff
to progress and gain qualifications ‘on the
job’ without the disincentive of having
to leave work to go back to studying.
We welcome the government’s recent
announcements of additional domestic
training places for healthcare professionals,
but this will not be enough on its
own. Longer term workforce planning
must incorporate not only ‘growing
more of our own’ in order to reduce
dependence on overseas staff, but must
acknowledge that for the foreseeable
future the NHS will need to continue to
attract and retain a global workforce.
THE NHS VOICE IN BREXIT
The NHS was at the heart of the
pre‑Referendum debate (remember the Battle
Bus?): it needs to remain at the heart of the
Brexit negotiations. The NHS Confederation
and NHS Employers are working to get the
best possible deal for the Health Service
by minimising the risks and maximising the
opportunities that Brexit presents. Other
sectors are intensely lobbying for their
interest: we must ensure the NHS voice is
heard loud and clear above the clamour. L
FURTHER INFORMATION
www.nhsconfed.org/regions-and-eu/
nhs-european-office

Volume 16.5 | HEALTH BUSINESS MAGAZINE

39

Healthcare Recruitment

EVENT REVIEW

Making recruitment
in healthcare easier
A new healthcare training and recruitment event has offered health professionals with new,
significant continuing professional development opportunities. Health Business
reviews the Healthcare Recruitment & Training Fair
In 2013, the World Health Organization
(WHO) predicted shortages of 12.9 million
health-care workers globally by 2035. Failing
to immediately solve this issue will
have serious health implications
for billions of people across
the world. This has caused
tremors in hospitals and
clinics currently facing
projected shortages in
their workforce. In the
UK, HR departments
are struggling to meet
workforce demands
which leaves little time
to plan for future staffing
issues, let alone the current
shortage of qualified staff in
the UK, both resulting from an
increase in demand for care versus
a decrease in the supply of qualified staff.
One major factor impacting the increasing
demand of the UK healthcare system is
attributed to the prevalence of a growing

ageing population and the development of
new medicines which have led to people living
longer and thus places healthcare systems
under more strain to manage capacity.
This growth of ageing populations
can only expect to further
increase demand for health
care services in the future.
Additionally, the shift
in the leading causes of
death in the UK from
communicable diseases
to chronic diseases such
as cancer, cardiovascular
diseases and neurological
conditions such as
dementia, also impacts the
demand. Moreover, the global
migration of ethnic minorities,
and more recently migration from
war, is increasing the numbers of patients
in communities. While immigration into the
UK tends to be of younger people and who
are more likely to have lower healthcare

are
Healthc s are
ll
shortfa England,
: in
evident HS vacancies
N
62,520 advertised in
were ree months
just th autumn
in the 014
of 2

40

HEALTH BUSINESS MAGAZINE | Volume 16.5

needs, population growth is demanding is
contributing to demand for NHS care. NHS
workforce planning must reflect factors
such as the high propensity of less health
migrants to move into deprived areas
where hospitals and general practitioners
may be at capacity limits. This increasing
demand adds significantly to the current
workforce shortages and is only expected
to keep on increasing over time.
STAFF SHORTFALLS
Shortfalls in qualified healthcare staff is
also evident by the number of job vacancies
advertised for hospital and caregiver roles
throughout the UK. In England, 62,520
NHS vacancies were advertised in just
three months in the Autumn of 2014. These
shortfalls are attributed to high recruitment
costs and a decrease in the number of
students going into the medical field.
Looking deeper into the issues underpinning
the shortage of skilled healthcare workers,
high staff turnover also plays a big part;

16,000 or 30 per cent of nurses leave their
roles each year. On top of this, many are
also being recruited from abroad, in 2014
one in four nurses were recruited from the
EU with an estimated cost of £2,500 per
nurse. The importance of finding permanent
staff therefore becomes crucial in the light
of the government’s commitment to cut
temporary staff costs by €1 billion.
Shortages in qualified staff is also stemming
from the lack of young people entering
medical and healthcare training programs. This
drop has been attributed to high education
fees and recent cuts in funding for training
in healthcare disciplines. Factors such as
the lengthy training programmes, antisocial
working hours, high stress levels and low
remuneration for junior roles also impact
choices for medical and healthcare careers.
Solutions to meet current and future work
force demands including promising long
term government initiatives to fill the future
UK healthcare deficit are already underway.
These include government supported road
shows, event days in schools to help generate
interest at an early age in addition to fast
track career development and apprentice
programs in efforts to ensure qualified medical
staff for the future. However, it takes time to
implement such solutions. Immediate actions
are needed to fill in vacancies quickly.
THIS YEAR’S SHOW
Recruiting good staff is time-consuming
and costly for any organisation and as such
retaining great employees should be a top
priority. Career development opportunities,
flexible work schedules, benefits tailored to
individual needs and goals are tested ways to
retain valued employees. Hospitals are thus
encouraged to consider career development
programs to retain key workers which will
definitely build their existing workforce and
meet future demands. Recruitment shows are
a popular and effective solution for providing
a platform to advertise vacancies, meet and
screen potential candidates on site, find top
talent and reduce recruitment costs instantly.
The Healthcare Recruitment & Training
Fair opened its doors on 15-17 September
at ExCel, London, to 1,026 attendees to
assist healthcare organisations in their
recruitment process in the midst of the UK’s
healthcare workforce deficit. Organised by
Informa Life Sciences Exhibitions, the fair
offered the ideal opportunity for the medical
industry to come together and get involved.
As the UK’s newest recruitment and
career development event designed to
support the whole healthcare sector, the
Healthcare Recruitment & Training Fair
hosted 18 free-to-attend conferences
across the three days during the event.
Twelve of the conferences, which delegates
were free to attend, had a clinical focus.
The conferences included: Anaesthesia;
Cardiology; Dermatology; Diabetes; Emergency
Medicine, General Practitioners; Nursing;

Obstetrics and Gynaecology; Orthopaedics;
Paediatrics; Radiology; and Surgery.
The other conferences were: Leadership;
Working Abroad; Best Practice & Trust
Showcase; Alternative Careers; Placement
& Specialist Selection; and Nursing
Workforce Planning & Strategy. On top
of this, an extensive and specialist list
of 77 speakers were on hand to pass
on their knowledge and experience.
Outside of the conferences, the Placement
and Specialist Selection Workshop presented
a session on how to approach the medical
specialist application form and prepare
the perfect medical CV. Further to this,
an all-day conference on leadership and
management skills considered techniques
and tools, and also looked at developing
leadership skills including structuring career
pathways, leading organisational change,
developing enhanced influencing skills
and dealing with underperformance.
EXHIBITORS AND THE FAIR
Data revealed before the show suggested
that NHS England is placing around 26,000

included a number of overseas and
international organisations, including
representatives from Western Australia, and
Gulf Region hospitals in Dubai, Abu Dhabi,
Riyadh, and Doha. Among the 55 exhibitors,
the main reasons for exhibiting were noted
as: to seek candidates to fill immediate or
future vacancies; to broaden recruitment
programmes; to meet new candidates faceto-face during the event; and to promote
companies as a great place to work.
Dr Tahira Rashid, head of development
at Informa Life Sciences Exhibitions,
said: “A key element to the Fair is in the
range of CPD-accredited conferences and
masterclasses. In line with Informa Life
Sciences’ philosophy of ‘Exhibition with
Education’, these premier seminars will attract
a diverse range of specialists and doctors.
“Recruitment shows are a popular and
effective way of filling vacancies quickly,” she
added. “These one stop solutions have proven
to be the ideal way to fill current vacancies in
the shortest time while delivering training to
enhance the retention of good employees.
“The Healthcare Recruitment & Training

Career development opportunities, flexible work
schedules, benefits tailored to individual needs
and goals are tested ways to retain valued
employees – and the NHS should be no different
full time equivalent job vacancy adverts each
month. The data also suggested that each
advert attracts an average of 13 applications,
with three applicants shortlisted, but with only
around one in five vacancies being filled.
Running parallel to the conferences is a
healthcare recruitment fair with exhibitors
representing a range of trusts, clinical
commissioning groups, and healthcare
service providers from around the UK.
Potential employers include University
College Hospital London, Kings College
Hospital, and Peterborough and Stamford
Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Exhibitors

Fair will appeal to all professionals
working in healthcare who are interested
in career opportunities, with exhibitors
looking to recruit medical and non‑medical
professionals. Sales, marketing, HR
and administrative roles have all been
highlighted as key positions that desperately
need experienced professionals.” L

The Healthcare Recruitment & Training
Fair will return in September 2017.
FURTHER INFORMATION
www.healthrecruitmentfair.com/uk

41

Are you having
problems with false fire alarms?
At least 50% of all Fire Service call outs are false alarms,
resulting in a potential loss of millions of pounds to health
organisations, with thousands of hours lost in staff time.

Protect your fire system from
malicious and acccidental abuse with
the Sigma SMART GUARD
The Smart+Guard is a tough
polycarbonate hinged protective cover
that can easily be installed over a range
of emergency switches and other devices
to provide protection from vandalism,
accidental damage or misuse.

Hospitals can be very large and complex buildings that pose more fire risks than other environments.
Will Lloyd, of the Fire Industry Association, analyses the risks and steps to take to ensure safety
In a shocking lack of knowledge regarding fire
safety, news of four hospitals within the UK
reached national press this year. The reason?
They all lacked sufficient fire protection.
The Sun reported that the hospital in
Coventry was hit with £380 million bill after
it was revealed that builders had failed to
fire-proof it. Of course, this is no fault of the
doctors and other medical staff working in
the building, but it does highlight the dangers
that a fire could do to a building and how
important it is to comply with fire regulations.
Regardless of the type of building, the
fire regulations for England and Wales are
all part of a piece of legislation called the
Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005.
This legislation sets out all the responsibilities
of the owner of the building (called the
‘responsible person’ in UK legislation).

In simple terms, the ‘responsible person’
must ensure the safety of all of the people
within the building. In a hospital setting, the
real crux of the matter is the sheer volume
of vulnerable people within the
hospital building that must
be protected in the case of
fire, along with all the
staff and visitors to the
hospital. As a legal
responsibility, the
‘responsible person’
must carry out a fire
risk assessment to
manage the risk to
the vulnerable people.

potential risks involved, called ‘Fire safety
measures for health sector buildings (HTM
05-03)’. This guide is essential reading for
a responsible person as it outlines some
important factors to consider in terms of
fire safety, and is both thorough and
comprehensive. The guidance
outlines almost everything
that one should consider in
terms of fire safety – from
general fire safety, to more
specific aspects such as
provisions for textiles
and furnishings, escape
lifts, and fire detection
and alarm systems.
All of these guides are
available to download from
gov.uk, but the Fire Industry
Association (FIA) is also available
for practical and technical advice and
guidance regarding fire risk assessments
and fire alarm systems over the phone.

Be
practicest
that a fi states
should re alarm
weekly be tested
–
inform it is vital to
s
test to taff of the
min
disrupt imise
ion

FIRE GUIDANCE
Hospitals can be very
large and complex buildings.
The main risks for fire in a hospital
are the main risks of fire everywhere, but
with hospitals there are more risks. There’s
the risk of patients with limited mobility
as well as all the flammable substances
that most buildings do not contain, such
as chemicals and oxygen supplies, and all
the flammable materials within a pharmacy
or an operating theatre. Even if one simply
considers the sheer volume of curtains and
bedding within a hospital, that presents a risk
too, because naturally cloth is flammable.
The Department for Health has published a
wide range of guidance for hospitals on the

PATIENT SAFETY
Of course, a great consideration is the patients
themselves and the danger present to them
in the event of a fire. Due to limited mobility,
a plan should be drawn up for progressive
horizontal evacuation, whereby each floor
or section of the hospital acts as a different
‘compartment’ for a fire. When the fire
approaches a nearby compartment, staff and
patients should evacuate that compartment, E

Thousands of staff hours are lost every year due to
false fire alarms, affecting service delivery, business
continuity and patient care.*
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RISK MANAGEMENT
 rather than evacuating everybody from
the whole building at once. This is why
passive fire protection – insulation from
fire within the walls, doors, and windows
is vital – as it blocks fires from travelling
from one compartmented area to another.
This is the reason that fire doors are
such an important part of trying to contain
the fire in the room behind the doors.

by the FIA from earlier this year, entitled
Investigations into the causes of false fire
alarms, highlighted that despite this problem
being exceptionally common, it is something
that can easily be remedied. The solution is to
ask a specialist fire alarm company to install a
special plastic cover to go over the call point,
which should protect it from getting banged
or knocked by busy staff with trolleys.

Due to limited mobility, a plan should be drawn
up for progressive horizontal evacuation,
whereby each floor or section of the hospital
acts as a different ‘compartment’ for a fire
Fire doors are designed to help stop the
spread of fire beyond the doors; it helps
in the event of an evacuation situation
to keep the fire contained within the
designed ‘compartment’ of the building.
However, in a hospital, fire doors are often
propped open or bashed into by hospital
trolleys. But this can be exceptionally
dangerous as it increases the risk of fires
spreading through the building. Keeping the
doors closed keeps the fire safely behind
the door, allowing for a greater escape time.
Therefore, it is vital not to prop fire doors
open with hospital trolleys or cause damage
to them as this reduces their effectiveness.
Additionally, hospital trolleys banging into
manual call points (the button that activates
the fire alarm) is one of the prime causes of
false alarms in hospitals. Research sponsored

Not only do false alarms cause time to be
lost investigating the cause, they also cause
distress to patients who may be worried
that there is a real fire on the premises.
It is therefore recommended that alarms
have a delay before sounding. During this
time, a team should investigate the cause
of the alarm – and confirm if the fire is
real or false. If a fire is confirmed, the
evacuation plan including progressive
horizontal evacuation should be followed.
HAVING A SOUND FIRE PLAN
Understanding the evacuation plan and
having a robust system for the event of a fire
is a necessity. Perhaps even more important
is the need to communicate this plan to
the staff. Communication is key, particularly
in a situation where fire alarms need to

be tested. Best practice states that a fire
alarm should be tested weekly – but it is
vital to inform staff of the test to minimise
disruption and allow the staff to reassure
patients that it is not a real fire alarm.
This is why the best advice anyone could
give in regards to fire safety is just to remain
vigilant; keep the fire risk assessment upto-date and follow its recommendations to
the letter. The fire risk assessment forms the
entire basis of the fire safety management
strategy for the building, and should be
reviewed on a regular basis. Talk to staff and
make fire safety an integral part of caring
for patients. Staff should all be involved.
As a minimum, fire safety training should
be carried out once a year, but it depends on
the needs of the staff and patients as well as
the type of training – staff should be made
aware not just of the evacuation procedure,
but of how to use evacuation equipment
such as sleds, chairs, or other equipment
designed to evacuate the immobile.
Additionally, portable fire extinguisher
training is such an important part of the
strategy; if staff are trained to know how
to use a fire extinguisher, they can combat
small fires (no larger than a waste paper
basket, for example), which will prevent the
fire getting bigger and becoming a problem.
Training staff how to use the equipment
in a practical sense and letting them use
it in a mock-fire situation will help increase
their confidence and help them to provide
better care for the patients overall. L
FURTHER INFORMATION
www.fia.uk.com

Setting a new
standard in
healthcare
Visitors and delegates flocked to Manchester for the biggest
showcase of products and services in the UK healthcare sector.
Off the back of this, Health Business reviews Healthcare Estates
As the built environment of the healthcare
sector continues to evolve, Health Business
looks back at the Healthcare Estates show,
which took place on the 4-5 October at
Manchester Central, and is the UK’s largest
trade exhibition for the healthcare sector.
On the 4-5 October, an assembly of
delegates gathered together at Manchester
Central, to exchange knowledge and
network at the Healthcare Estates
show, which included the IHEEM Annual
Conference, Awards Dinner and exhibition.
A COLLABORATIVE ESTATE
At this year’s show, the conference followed
the theme of ‘Transforming the Estate
through Collaboration’ and concentrated on

maximising the NHS estates and facilities’
budget through efficiencies in design,
build, management and maintenance.
Healthcare Estates featured four streams
of content, including: Strategy; Design and
Construction; Engineering and Facilities
Management; and Governance and Assurance.
Day one of the show began with a record
number of visitors and kicked off with
noteworthy keynote presentations from
Professor Timothy Evans, consultant in
intensive care and thoracic medicine at Royal
Brompton & Harefield NHS Foundation Trust;
and David Powell, development director
at Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation
Trust. Evans and Powell were then joined
by a panel of experts, and quizzed by

question master Simon Corben of Capita
Health Partners. Infrastructure panellists
included Clive Nattrass, Carbon and Energy
Fund; Peter Sellars, Department of Health;
and Julian Amey, Institute of Healthcare
Estates and Engineering Management.
Keynote addresses on the second day
included a detailed exploration of the ‘The
View of the Estate and the Contribution of
the Estates and Facilities Community from
the Perspective of the DH Director General
with Responsibility for NHS Finance’,
by David Williams, director general of
Finance at the Department of Health.
Following the keynote address, a short
break for coffee and a chance to visit to
the exhibitions, the streams commenced at
around midday. The first day of the conference
centred on Strategy, Engineering & Facilities
Management and Design and Construction.

Healthcare Estates

EVENT REVIEW

STRATEGY
First up on the agenda for Strategy was
an introductory discussion on ‘Optimising
Clinical Service and Estates Plans to
Meet Future Demands’, from Connor
Ellis, head of Health Sector at Citrica.
The presentation examined the current
state of the NHS Estate in its entirety and
explored ways we can achieve a long-term
health and social care investment plan.
Further discussions ranged from
‘Transforming the Way Integrated Technologies
are Delivered’ to advice on making a success
of private and public sector partnerships.
Meanwhile, the second day of the exhibition
saw the Strategy stream debate subjects
ranging from an update on the Carter Review
and the potential for new healthcare models.
ENGINEERING &
FACILITIES MANAGEMENT
The Engineering & Facilities Management
dialogue included an assortment of topics
within the healthcare sector. Lynda Cox
of assent management company Currie &
Brown set the ball rolling with an analysis of
‘The Importance of Independent Review of
Facilities Management Contracts’. Later on
in the day, Nick Hill of Water Quality London
and John Predergast and Sue Holding from
Technical Publishing Resources, provided an
informative overview of their part in assisting
the Department of Health in the production
of recent Health Building Notes (HBN) and
Health Technical Memoranda (HTM) updates.
The Engineering & Facilities Management’s
second day of dialogue included an
overview of the importance of monitoring
high voltage power equipment, by Geoff
Yeomans, associate director at Eta Projects
and a presentation on maintaining essential
hospital ventilation systems, by Jerry Slain,
director of Occupational Hygiene Services.
DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION
Day one of the Design and Construction
stream kicked off with a talk from Martin E

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consultation and bespoke specifications through to live site
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All this goes into a Langley roof – with access to approved
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EVENT REVIEW
 Townsend, from the Building Research
Establishment (BRE), which centred on the
sustainability impact of BREEAM on the
NHS estate since it was first launched in
2008. Further discussions for this speciality
involved an exploration on creating
safe and secure A&E departments and
rethinking A&E operations and design to
progress the delivery of supportive clinical
care for the dementia patient.
Concluding the stream, Christopher
Shaw, senior director of Medical
Architecture, provided
advice on implementing a
new class of healthcare
infrastructure, to support
complex and integrated
care settings and local
networking in hospitals.

of the West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust,
outlined the trust’s multi-disciplinary approach
to implementing the Premises Assurance
Model (PAM) in an NHS acute trust and what
steps could be taken to improve the process.
Next up on the Governance Assurance Agenda
was a presentation on CQC preparedness
by Robert Nettleton, strategic estates adviser
and a concluding speech by Bellas on ‘The
Future of ERIC and the Estates
and Facilities Dashboard’.

GOVERNANCE
ASSURANCE
The Governance Assurance
conference featured solely on
the second day, 6 October, of the
Healthcare Estates show, with Michael
Bellas, strategy, informatics and assurance
lead of the Estates & Facilities Efficiency
Team, Carter Improvement Programme,
beginning the discussion with an introduction
on the developments in the sector.
Following the introduction, Jacqui Grimwood

Curve’; Product Innovation - Bed Stacker
Project, Healthcare Storage Solutions/
Salisbury NHSFT; Refurbishment Project of
the Year – Endcliffe, The Longley Centre,
Sheffield Health & Social Care NHS FT, P+HS
Architects; Client of the Year – The Christie
NHS Foundation Trust; and Sustainable
Achievement – Carbon and Cost Reductions.
EXHIBITION
In addition to the enlightening discussions
and conference streams which took place, the
show included an exhibition with over 200
exhibitors from across the sector. It brought
together those who design, build, manage and
maintain healthcare facilities and showcased
the latest technologies equipment and services
designed to improve healthcare environments
and patient experience. Specifically aimed
at estates and facilities departments,
architects, consulting engineers, construction
companies, suppliers and others directly
involved in managing estates and facilities, the
exhibition features and conference provided
essential support to both organisation
decision makers and professionals. L

The event returns next year to Manchester
on the 10-11 October 2017.
FURTHER INFORMATION
www.healthcare-estates.com

Volume 16.5 | HEALTH BUSINESS MAGAZINE

49

Andy Williams, chief executive, NHS Digital
speaking at HETT as part of the UK Health Show

Unleashing NHS
potential at the
UK Health Show
Rising cyber attacks, public trust in data handling, and the
need for new NHS digital leaders, were at the forefront of
issues debated at the UK Health Show 2016
More than 4,000 healthcare professionals
descended on the conference and exhibition
floor of the inaugural UK Health Show, where
some of the biggest names from NHS England,
NHS Digital, the Department of Health, royal
colleges, regulators, providers, commissioners,
and industry partners came together to share
best practice, to urge for rapid action and to
warn of new threats facing the health service.
A new event, in the sense that it now
brought together five conferences on a
single day around technology, cyber security,
estates, procurement, and commissioning,
the UK Health Show still had familiar
footings; incorporating the firmly established
Healthcare Efficiency Through Technology
(HETT) into its strong programme line-up,
from which a rich source of material emerged
to help in the better running of the NHS.
LARGE CYBER THREATS
SUSTAINED AGAINST THE NHS
Delegates heard the NHS had become
an increasingly tempting target for cyber
attackers, a recurrent theme that might have
come as little surprise to many. A pre-show

survey revealed widespread concerns from
NHS professionals that their organisations
faced an increase in attacks in the coming
years. But those at the helm of NHS policy
told the event they were making a concerted
effort to boost preparedness.
Rob Shaw, NHS Digital’s chief
operating officer, told the
event’s Cyber Security in
Healthcare Conference
that frequent attacks
were already taking
place, confirming
that the organisation
is ‘seeing more and
more ransomware
attacks’.
A failed, but
nevertheless large and
sustained national level
attack that took place in
September, ‘may or may not have
been state sponsored’, he added, warning
that in the past attacks like this had not been
identified until the moment of the ‘worst
outcome’. He told the event that we are now

UK Health Show

EVENT REVIEW

‘in detect mode, rather than defence mode’.
Speakers from organisations ranging from an
ambulance trust, through to Jeremy Hunt’s
former ministerial home in the Department
for Culture, Media and Sport, all referenced
the degree of the cyber threat now facing
the NHS. Weaknesses had to be addressed.
Andrew Rose of the Information
Commissioner’s Office, warned that a lot of
successful attacks were being introduced
by staff themselves, sometimes due to
carelessness, but more often, he said,
due to poor training and procedures.
The ‘bring your own device’ (BYOD)
policy, though less fashionable than
it has been in previous years, was
nevertheless still a significant security
threat to the NHS, insisted Rose.
He said: “BYOD, as far as we are
concerned, is another potential security
disaster waiting to happen. As a data
controller you must remain in control of the
personal information you are responsible
for, regardless of who owns the device. If
you allow people to put it on their own
devices and take it home, can you retain
and keep that control? Probably not.”
WHY SPEND SO MUCH
ON DIGITISATION?
Away from the discussion on the threats
of technology, came urgency for its potential
in transforming the NHS. Ahead of the UK
Health Show, a survey of more than 400
attendees revealed significant concerns
over the future sustainability of the NHS –
in particular, 86 per cent of professionals
questioned cast serious doubts on the NHS’
ability to reach the £22 billion savings
outlined in the Five Year Forward View.
With finances so stretched, NHS Digital
chief executive Andy Williams told the HETT
conference just why so much money was
being spent on making a digital reality.
Referencing findings from the recent Watcher
report as his answer, Williams stated that
‘the one thing the NHS can’t afford to do is
remain a largely non digital system’.
He reflected on trollies of paper
seen during a recent personal
NHS encounter and the scale
of the task still faced. But
for Williams, digitising the
patient experience had to
happen. It was essential
for patients facing a lack
of co-ordinated care. It
was a must for patients
like Hugh Huddy, a blind
patient who wanted to
use digital technologies
to avoid unnecessary ‘blind
person miles’ in visiting GPs.
There were a number of key questions:
How can we progressively make sure simple
things are available electronically? How
can we encourage an apps and wearables
revolution? How can we help make the E

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attende an 400
signific es revealed
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Volume 16.5 | HEALTH BUSINESS MAGAZINE

51

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29th November 2016, Grange St. Paulâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Hotel, London

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EVENT REVIEW
 health and care system digitally accessible?
Technology needed to become
interoperable, the right leadership was
needed, and fundamentally, patient
trust was required, said Williams.
He told the conference: “NHS Digital, in
the last two years, has taken an enormous
amount of effort to be much more careful
about the way information flows, to us
and from us. If we are going to use data
and information more effectively we have
to do it with the consent of the public.
The public has to trust us, and unless we
have that trust, we are not going to be
able to use that information to manage the
system better, to understand patient flows,
to develop new methods of care, to allow
research, to develop new treatments.”
But with that trust, he insisted: “A revolution
can start to happen. If we don’t do this, we
will never achieve the Five Year Forward View.”
CALLING THE ‘DIGITAL DOCTOR’
Professor Bob Wachter, the world renowned
‘digital doctor’ who recently delivered his
review of NHS digitisation to Health Secretary
Jeremy Hunt, provided his diagnosis to the
HETT conference via a Skype call. Interviewed
live by NHS Digital’s Sir Nick Partridge, Wachter
emphasised the importance of interoperability.
With a good number of US technology
multinationals exhibiting at the event,
he said: “A mistake the US made was to
promote wide scale technology adoption,
but we didn’t force interoperability from the
beginning. 90-95 per cent of our hospitals

He floated the idea of having a technology
scaffolding in place and positions like a
nurse informaticist, who lives in the same
clinical world and who thinks hard about
delivering most value for patients, and how
this was very exciting for most clinicians.
A real risk was the absence of the people
needed to form the bridge. Chief clinical
information officers still didn’t have
the status needed. But the appointment
of Dr Keith McNeil as a national CCIO
now ‘sets the tone’, added Wachter.
He went on to say: “We need more
people who have 50-75 per cent of their
time available for technology. There aren’t
those people in the system today. Trusts
need to be pushed to hire these people,
with appropriate status. But you also need
to train such people. To truly have a robust
ecosystem where you are training the right
number of people and those people have the
right positions in the trust to get the work
done, that’s a five to 10-year journey.”
DIGITISATION IS ‘NOT A NIKE MOMENT’
Dr Harpreet Sood, senior fellow to
the chair and CEO of NHS England,
agreed strongly that dedicated clinical
infomaticists were needed, and that a
structure was required to support them.
He said: “I am a clinician with a huge
interest in this space, but I have no clear
route or training path to combine my
clinical training, with informatics training.
This will require dedicated resource within
organisations which will do this on a full

“Technology adoption is about change,
and change is coming to a street near you.
It is about culture, which enables us to
engage people and unleash innovation,
which is what technology is all about”
have systems that don’t talk to each
other very well or to the GP systems.”
Putting the right people in place,
with the right skills, would be key.
He said: “No clinician or person wants to
drive themselves out of a job. Technology
transforms in ways that sometimes
leads to very different staffing models.
In healthcare, I think that idea is very,
very far away. That is not what we are
talking about for the next 10-20 years.
“What we are talking about is doctors and
nurses who want to deliver the best possible
care for their patients and feel that they are
spending their time doing work that doesn’t
add value, that is well beneath what they are
trained to do, not allowing them to focus their
attention where they add most value. Those
people are used to seeing technology in the
rest of their lives and want their work to be
redesigned in a way that makes more sense.”

time-basis. Half a day a week or a day
a week is not significant enough to help
large scale transformational change.”
NHS England’s new CCIO, Dr Keith
McNeil, who was referenced by Wachter
as the example job function now
needed throughout the health service,
argued that people held the key.
He told the conference: “It would be
really nice if it was a Nike moment ‘Just do
it’, but it ain’t [sic] that simple. Technology
allows us to unleash our potential. But if
you look across health, or any industry,
potential is really about people. We
have got to find a way for technology
enabling people to be unleashed.
“Technology adoption is about change,
and change is coming to a street near you.
It is about culture, which enables us to
engage people and unleash innovation,
which is what technology is all about.”

MORE THAN JUST TECHNOLOGY
The UK Health Show was about far more than
just technology. Amongst an equally strong
speaker line-up that debated everything
from devolution to outcomes and clinically
led commissioning, the Commissioning in
Healthcare conference saw NHS England’s
James Sanderson argue strongly for
personalisation, with other discussion
focussing on achieving 100,000 personal
health budgets across England by 2020.
The Estates in Healthcare conference saw
rich sessions on efficiency and sustainability
across the NHS estate. And Procurement in
Healthcare pushed the boundaries of just who
should lead on NHS procurement. In particular, a
convincing address by Janet Davies at the Royal
College of Nursing, and Mandie Sunderland,
from Nottingham University Hospitals NHS
Trust, showed how the hearts and minds
of nurses had been captured in reducing waste
and variation in procurement when the result
was improved patient safety and hundreds of
thousands of pounds saved for frontline nursing.
At a time when NHS resources are
tighter than ever, including the time
staff can spend at conferences, the UK
Health Show proved a highly valuable
resource worth the investment. L

The UK Health Show returns on
27 September 2017 at Olympia, London.
FURTHER INFORMATION
www.ukhealthshow.com

What makes
a good leader
within the NHS?
In a time of constant change and upheaval, leadership has never
been more important. John Yates, group director at ILM, discusses
leadership at all levels and why support to leaders is critical
When it comes to effective leadership, the UK
has a skills gap that spans all sectors with
UKCES finding that 500,000 new managers
are needed by 2020; and 46 per cent of
employers struggle to recruit leaders overall.
The public healthcare sector is no exception
to this shortage either. In his 2015 review
of NHS leadership, Lord Stuart Rose raised
his concerns about the NHS not having
the leadership capability to deal effectively
with the changes demanded of the service.
Whether it’s changing the way that services
are currently contracted, ensuring greater
savings and efficiencies, or finding skilled
professionals in a complex recruitment
landscape – NHS leaders need to be able to
work in a constantly shifting environment.
More than ever before, we need leaders within
the NHS that can face up to the challenge.
SINK OR SWIM
We frequently hear that those with leadership
responsibilities are not given development or
support to learn the skills required for such a
role. For example, clinicians in the health sector
tend to be promoted into leadership positions
because of their medical expertise and clinical
experience. When promoted, they are expected
to pick up leadership skills naturally rather
than being taught best practice methods to
manage others. This means that clinicians
are thrust into leadership positions with the
right medical expertise but not necessarily the
leadership skills to manage and nurture staff.
As highlighted in The King’s Fund report The
future of leadership and management in the
NHS, many clinicians in leadership positions
experience a disconnect between their day job
requirements and leadership expectations –
not knowing how to strike a suitable balance.
This sink or swim approach to leadership,
having to learn on the job, is often at the
expense of those they are managing. We
can all think of bad leaders we’ve had in the
past – those who handled a conversation
insensitively, or those who we doubted really
listened to our concerns before providing an
ill-fitting solution. In order for professionals
to be effective leaders, training and

54

HEALTH BUSINESS MAGAZINE | Volume 16.5

development is required to help them hone
skills such as active listening and empathy.
LEADERSHIP AT ALL LEVELS
When we discuss leadership development,
it’s all too common to think in terms of
training those at the top of an organisation.
But actually, leadership skills are needed
at all levels of an organisation – so we
should be thinking about those starting
their careers within the NHS right through
to the senior ranks. Leadership requires
negotiation, motivation, risk management
and problem solving skills (to name a
few) and whether entering a first line
management role or leading an
entire department – these skills
will always be needed.
Learning doesn’t
stop once a training
programme is over either;
leadership skills need
to constantly adapt and
develop. We now have
an unprecedented four
generations working
together in the workforce
– meaning that different
leadership skills need to
be utilised to accommodate
differing generational expectations.
Someone that entered the NHS workforce in
the 1970s, for example, will no doubt have
seen the significant changes it has gone
through over the decades and have had
to adapt their practices. So why should
leadership skills be any different? Effective
leadership styles that worked then are likely
to be outdated now and need modernising
to meet today’s workplace demands.

responsible for a particular task or service,
being passed from pillar to post as individuals
cite that it isn’t their responsibility. Therefore
each time change occurs, it’s vital that
roles and responsibilities are revised within
this to ensure they are still fit for purpose
and clearly understood. Leaders must
communicate this to their direct reports,
helping them to understand where they
fit and what their responsibilities are.
The NHS staff survey also found that only
43 per cent felt able to meet the conflicting
demands on their time. Leaders play a key
role in supporting employees in managing
their time, by understanding what pressures
they face and helping them break it down
into essential and non-essential activities.
What may seem like an urgent activity
due to pressure from other stakeholders,
may not be a priority in the leader’s eyes –
so it’s important to know how employees
are managing demands on their time.
COACHING
One tool leaders frequently use to support
employees in their daily working lives
and career progression, is coaching. It’s a
technique whereby the leader helps the
employee to find a solution to their work
problem that works well for them – rather
than the leader imposing an answer on them.
It is an effective way of teaching people how
to problem solve and think differently in
their approach to work, rather than
relying on seeking answers
from others. During times of
instability and flux coaching
techniques are useful,
as it helps individuals
to work out solutions
for themselves rather
than simply await
further instruction.
South Staffordshire and
Shropshire Healthcare
NHS Foundation Trust
(SSSFT) has created a
culture of coaching across
its hospitals. Through ILM
accredited training in coaching,
the programme reaches professionals from
Shropshire to the Isle of Wight, helping
them to build and lead effective teams
of clinical and administrative staff.
The trust has since seen a positive impact on
both new staff joining the Trust and on those
transferring as a result of acquisitions.
Theresa Shaw, head of learning and
development at SSSFT, comments:
“As a trust, we wanted to build
our teams and equip our
leaders with the skills needed
to manage transitions in the
workplace. We wanted to
empower employees
to take ownership
and responsibility,
helping them to

CERTAIN UNCERTAINTY
The only constant in the NHS is that change
is a constant. Leaders need to be able to
navigate change themselves, whilst helping
others to understand where they fit and
their role and responsibilities. A frequent
complaint we hear from those working in
the NHS is that it’s difficult to find who is

be more resilient in an ever changing trust. The
programme has given them confidence in their
skills and helped them to develop others too.
“We’re really proud of what we’ve achieved
to date. In fact we are only one of three
mental health trusts in the UK to receive a good
rating in the Care Quality Commission’s (CQC)
inspection report. Our investment in employee
development has really helped to ensure that
we have a productive and engaged workforce.”
MOTIVATING STAFF
Another challenge that cuts across the whole
NHS sector is motivation. When taking into
account cuts to funding, extended hours
for GPs and strikes by junior doctors, it’s
understandable that morale has been low
in the NHS organisation in recent years.
Trusts are having to hit targets for cost
improvements with less and less resource,
with services being stripped back. When staff
are under more pressure than ever before to
provide their patients with the quality care
under strained resources, personal motivation
suffers and there is a conflict with values.
Leaders play a crucial role in aiding
motivation. Celebrating successes, encouraging
staff to take control of their own careers, and
helping them to source new opportunities to
learn and develop are all ways that can help
motivation. Wide geographical spreads often
make this more challenging too, as professionals
are rarely all together in one place. So it’s
important for leaders to think about how to
motivate a highly mobile workforce. Sending
e-mails is one, often overused, tool – but
leaders that make the effort to have
face-to-face time can dramatically
help to improve morale too.
The NHS Staff survey found that
14 per cent of staff hadn’t
received an appraisal in 12
months, rising to 34 per
cent for ambulance
trusts. In order
for employees
to feel

truly engaged in the workplace, they also need
to be assured that they have a career and a
future with the organisation. Leaders within
the NHS can support this, by holding regular
career conversations and formal appraisals.
CONCLUSION
Leaders at all levels within the NHS face
ongoing transformation, which requires
regular support to ensure they have the
skills needed to navigate such a rapidly
changing environment. Not only does teaching
individuals’ leadership skills help them to
manage their direct reports, but it also has a
positive impact on patient care too. Using vital
communication tools to manage daily work
can be used across multiple stakeholders –
helping them to manage work more effectively.
We have incredible talent within the NHS;
let’s see it flourish. L

About The ILM
ILM is passionate about the power
of leadership and management to
transform people and businesses.
ILM believes that good leadership
and management creates effective
organisations, which builds social
and economic prosperity.
ILM provides qualifications
in leadership and management,
coaching and mentoring and
specialist areas such as social
enterprise and accredits
2,500 training experts to deliver our
qualifications globally.

FURTHER INFORMATION
Tel: (0)1543 266867
www.i-l-m.com

Volume 16.5 | HEALTH BUSINESS MAGAZINE

55

Leadership
Written by Chris Lake, head of professional development, NHS Leadership Academy

The barriers to making
health leadership
development a priority
When it comes to investing in leadership development, the health sector
is the poor relation. Chris Lake, head of professional development at the
NHS Leadership Academy, explores six of the reasons why
We spend over £100 billion a year on health,
but the proportion of spend on leadership
and management development and other
organisational development (OD) initiatives
as a proportion of this is incredibly low in
comparison to many other businesses, even
to the rest of the civil service. According to
The missing link: effective management and
leadership training in the NHS which was
published in 2012, annual spending on
management and leadership training
for NHS provider employees equates to
approximately £260 per employee compared
to £320 in the private sector.

getting people into senior jobs can be a huge
challenge, and keeping them there can be
even more difficult. We constantly hear from
our programme participants and colleagues
about the demanding situations they face
day in, day out. Today’s NHS has a difficult
culture where staff can find it hard to have a
voice, to feel valued, to develop and progress.
This isn’t true everywhere; there are
islands of appreciative, nurturing, enabling
culture, but in the NHS, resilience is
definitely a core characteristic. I’m not
denigrating resilience as a good thing to
have, but the fact that our system
requires it in such spadefulls
is a bit of an indictment
of the culture. Wouldn’t
it be better to run
organisations where
resilience was desirable
rather than essential?
Organisations fit to
house the human
spirit. Just as it isn’t
acceptable to move
into a leadership role
with no training, nor
should it be acceptable to be
unsupported either, especially
in your critical first year in post.

We
lly
don’t fu dge
le
acknow ct that
a
the imp ip has on
h
leaders isational
organ nce and
a
performnt care
patie

LACK OF RIGOUR
In several sectors there’s
a very structured
approach to leadership
development tied to
career progression.
The military and the
police service both
require development
and assessment,
for example through
promotion boards, before
leaders are appointed to
more senior roles. You do your
development first, then you’re promoted.
Other organisations also clearly articulate
the knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviours
necessary to succeed in leadership roles. They
provide structured on-the-job development
alongside development programmes, and
assessment to say whether or not aspiring
leaders are fit to practice at the next level
of influence. In the NHS, it’s quite common
for people to be promoted first, and
development to do the job is almost an
afterthought. There should be a minimum
expectation of management competence,
leadership behaviours, knowledge, attitudes
and values running right across the NHS.
LACK OF SUPPORT
When you do take up a leadership role, you
might excel, you might do the job to the
required standard, or you might fail. However,

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HEALTH BUSINESS MAGAZINE | Volume 16.5

LACK OF STRATEGIC DIRECTION
The NHS, with its workforce of 1.4 million and
its challenges in filling key leadership roles,
has no well-developed strategic framework
for leadership development. The Academy is
currently working with a consortium of NHS
bodies to rectify this. Guided by the National
Leadership Development and Improvement
Board, several organisations are working
together to develop a strategic framework for
leadership development and improvement.
Lead collaborators in this process include
colleagues from NHS Improvement,
NHS England, Professor Michael West, senior
fellow at The King’s Fund, and more. The
framework won’t be a top-down strategy
– that’s been tried, and not worked, before.
Instead, it will be an enabling framework that

describes what leadership development can
be delivered locally, regionally and nationally.
More, a strong theme of the framework will
be the actions and behaviours of the Arm’s
Length Bodies in modelling an enabling
environment where leadership flourishes.

LACK OF RESPECT FOR
LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT
We don’t fully acknowledge the impact that
leadership and management practices have on
organisational performance and patient care.
The horrific failures at Mid-Staffs occurred
because of a failure of leadership. Michael
West’s research has proved that high quality
leadership leads to lower patient mortality.
When we realised that prescribing too
many antibiotics lead to increased antibiotic
resistance, superbugs and more deaths,
the NHS took it seriously and took action.
We need to do the same with leadership,
development, team work and organisational
culture, or we could end up back in Mid Staffs
territory. I’ve heard a few people whisper
that there’s another Mid Staffs out there
somewhere – we just don’t know where it is.
But we don’t want it to emerge in the future.
THE DEMONISATION OF
LEADERS AND MANAGERS
The value of leadership and the worth
of managers and management within

healthcare is questioned, and that needs to
change. Politics and media combine to see
management as bureaucracy and managers
as bean-counters – an overhead to be reduced
at all times. No other industry I’m aware of
demonises management in the same way.
We look at high-performing organisations like
Apple and we tell inspirational stories about
Steve Jobs. Yet senior leaders in our healthcare
organisations are too often portrayed as
bureaucrats and an expensive resource.
Some of our hospital trusts are very large
businesses in their own right, with turnovers
of half a billion pounds not uncommon. These
organisations need managing and leading,
but we’ll only reward people for this depth
of responsibility somewhat begrudgingly.
And beyond the boardroom, managers
dedicating their working lives to coordinating
care in service of patients and their families
see themselves called number-crunchers.
Media and politics tend to love the doctors
and talk about nurses as angels. I too value
hugely the skill and dedication of all clinicians
working across our NHS, but I also value

the finance managers who get best value
for our tax-pounds, the service managers
who develop ever-better systems for patient
care and the HR managers who support the
human systems at the core of organisations.
I’ve listed above six barriers to making
leadership development in health a priority.
There’s definitely work to be done. I’m not
despondent though. I see many examples of
good practice in the participants we meet on
Academy programmes – and great evidence
of the difference leadership development
is making. And I visit organisations
that are shining examples of leadership
practice with a culture of development.
We just need to make that the norm. L

The NHS Leadership Academy was
launched in April 2012 with the purpose
of developing outstanding leadership
in health, in order to improve people’s
health and their experience of the NHS.
FURTHER INFORMATION
leadershipacademy.nhs.uk

UPWARDLY MOBILE
– DIABETES CARE
Jon Elburn, product manager for Clinical Information Systems at Hicom, explains how
joined-up community services can improve the trajectory of diabetes care
October marks the second anniversary of the
NHS Five Year Forward View. The publication
set out a shared vision for the future of the
NHS based on ‘new models of care’, and once
again highlighted the importance of breaking
down the traditional divide between primary
care, community services and hospitals. The
drivers for change – broadly the need to
reduce the financial and physical strain on
the service and to improve patient experience
– are particularly resonant in diabetes. It is
well-documented that the NHS spends around
£8 billion a year treating the complications
of diabetes, in addition to the inherent costs
of managing the disease itself. It is therefore
no surprise that health leaders and policy
makers have identified diabetes as a key focus
area for more effective community services.
EVIDENCE
Evidence suggests that the past decade
has seen terrific efforts across the NHS to
provide diabetes care outside of hospitals.
Patients are increasingly being seen in,
or near to, their homes by community
diabetes specialist nurses (DSNs) and
GPs with a Special Interest (GPwSIs).
There are great examples of
community‑based diabetes services up
and down the country that are delivering
high-quality care. However, as a recent
Care Quality Commission (CQC) report into
community diabetes care reveals, there is
still great variability at local level. Moreover,
although patients’ experiences of community
diabetes services are largely good, care is
not always responsive to individual needs.
BARRIERS
One of the major barriers to optimal
community diabetes services is a
long‑standing Achilles’ heel within the
NHS: the common inability for healthcare
professionals to access vital patient
information across clinical settings. This
not only affects continuity of care and
disrupts the patient experience, it can
also compromise health outcomes.
If we are to reach the utopia of joined-up
care, healthcare professionals need to
be empowered by access to the best
information available. In the field of
diabetes, where mismanagement can
lead to serious complications like heart
disease, stroke, blindness and amputation,

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HEALTH BUSINESS MAGAZINE | Volume 16.5

that need has never been greater. As
community diabetes services grow in
number, DSNs and GPwSIs cannot afford to
be hamstrung by a lack of access to crucial
information that is routinely collected
elsewhere along the patient journey.
THE SOLUTION
We live, however, with the solution every
day. As diabetes specialists demand
greater connectivity with their teams in
the community, mobile communication
and smartphone technology can help
DSNs and GPwSIs become more informed
and responsive in community settings.
These new tools, which are accessible
via standard mobile devices to deliver a
familiar, intuitive user experience, bring
much-needed connectivity and agility to
diabetes teams. Trusts should be using
them to collect and share information
across clinical settings and, in the process,
can improve the quality of diabetes care in
the community. Since the mobile interface
typically integrates with the diabetes
management system used within the hospital,
multidisciplinary teams can also use them
to help unlock Best Practice Tariff funding,
reduce administrative overheads, improve
productivity and increase time with patients.
The mobile approach is a quantum
leap from traditional methodologies.
The most common sees community
diabetes teams make paper-based notes
during patient consultations and then
input them to the diabetes management
system when they next have a secure
connection. This approach is slow, inefficient
and prone to transcription error.
Moreover, post-consultation administrative
tasks deprive HCPs of valuable time with
patients. In many cases, HCPs’ manual
notes are often scribbled on patient records

that have been printed off in advance and
taken out of the hospital, which is neither
secure nor auditable. Mobile technology
overcomes all of these challenges.
EFFECTIVE MOBILE TOOLS
The most effective mobile tools allow
community teams to download their patient
lists at the start of their day and then lock
the records on the central system so that
they cannot be updated by anyone else
whilst community visits are taking place.
Teams are then able to carry out their
consultations in the community, add the
appropriate notes to patient records in real
time, and then synchronise the updates
back to the diabetes management system
when they next have a secure connection.
The application of mobile technology to
diabetes community services can drive major
productivity and efficiency gains across
local health economies. In a health service
striving to be more patient-centred, the
technology removes the need for patients
to explain their entire history to HCPs,
simply because the latter have no access
to the patient record. This aspect alone can
significantly improve the patient experience.
Fundamentally, the use of mobile tools in
diabetes community services will have its
biggest impact where it matters most: patient
care. Real-time access to patient information
at the point of care not only empowers
community-based diabetes professionals,
it helps them make the most appropriate
treatment decisions that can alleviate
avoidable hospital admissions and enhance
health outcomes. For truly joined-up care in
diabetes, it is time to get upwardly mobile. L
FURTHER INFORMATION
Tel: +44 (0) 1483 794945
marketing@hicom.co.uk

Guidance to
regulate medical
device apps

The Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency has
produced new guidance to ensure that health apps which qualify
as medical devices are being identified and comply with safety
regulation. Valerie Field, interim group manager in the MHRA
devices division, explores the situation
We live in an increasingly digital world.
Healthcare professionals, patients and the
public are using software and stand-alone
applications (apps) to aid diagnosis and
monitor health, with many manufacturers,
software developers, academics, clinicians,
patients and organisations use software apps
for both healthcare and social care needs.
From counting steps to helping healthcare
professionals diagnose burns treatment,
healthcare apps and standalone software
are a part of everyday life. We are all so
familiar with apps that you might not realise
depending on an unregulated app to provide
a diagnosis or recommend treatment could
have life threatening consequences.
Some apps, which are used on smart
phones and computers, can be considered
a medical device in their own right if they
have a medical purpose. These can be called
stand-alone software or stand-alone medical
devices. This doesn’t include software that

is part of an existing medical device such
as software that controls a CT scanner as it
is seen to be part of the device already and
not stand-alone in its own right.
THE REGULATIONS
Many apps and pieces
of standalone software
currently on the market
are classified as medical
devices. These are
apps which gather
data from the user,
such as diet, exercise,
or heartbeat and then
analyse and interpret the
data to make a diagnosis,
prescribe a medicine, or
recommend treatment.
It is important that apps which
are medical devices comply with medical
device regulation to make sure they are

NEW GUIDANCE
The Medicines and Healthcare products
Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has issued
updated guidance to help identify the
health apps which are medical devices and
make sure they comply with regulations.
This will help to make sure the health apps
which meet the classification of medical
devices are being identified and comply with
regulations for safety and consistency.
The guidance is presented as a step‑by‑step
interactive PDF and will help software and
app developers identify if their product
is a medical device. It will also help
developers navigate the regulatory system
so they are aware what procedures they
need to have in place with regard to CE
marking and post-market surveillance.
It also has information on the need to
register as a manufacturer / developer and to
self- certify that their app meets the regulatory
requirements. This guidance uses examples
within flowcharts to show which standalone
software and apps meet the definition of a
medical device, an in vitro diagnostic device
or active implantable medical device
and therefore required to be CE
marked, and those which do not.
For developers of software,
including apps, we have also
including information on
classification, suggestions
on how to address the
main aspects of the
CE marking process
and responsibilities for
reporting and correcting
when things go wrong.

Written by Valerie Field, interim group manager, MHRA

HEALTHCARE APPS

Medical Devices

not providing an incorrect diagnosis
which may have severe, potentially
life‑threatening consequences for the user.
Where apps or stand-alone software make
a diagnosis or recommend a treatment,
people should check for CE-marking before
using their apps and developers should
make sure they are complying with the
appropriate medical device regulations.
As well as medical device apps becoming
a growth area in healthcare management
in hospital and in the community settings,
the role of apps used as part of fitness
regimes and for social care situations is
also expanding. However, in the UK and
throughout Europe, standalone software
and apps that meet the definition of
a medical device are still required to be
CE marked in line with the EU medical
device directives in order to ensure they
are regulated and acceptably safe to
use and also perform in the way the
manufacturer/ developer intends them to.

Cumbria Health on Call (CHoC) provide Out of
Hours healthcare services to patients, families
and communities throughout the county.If
you require medical attention when your GP
practice is closed, CHoC is ready to help.
CHoC has treatment centres in Carlisle, Penrith,
Wigton, Whitehaven, Kendal and Barrow,
offering out of hours’ support, Monday thru
Friday 6.30 to 8.00 am, 24 hours at weekends
and Bank holidays.Cumbria Health on call
(CHoC) was formed from a merger between
CueDoc and Baycall in April 2009 to form a
not-for-profit organisation serving patients
and visitors to Cumbria covering a population
of approximately 500,000 resulting in
approximately 150,000 patient presentations.
THE NEED TO BE EFFECTIVE
In 2014, CHoC identified the need to be
more effective at analysing and reporting on
their activities, internally to the operations
management team and externally to
commissioners. In addition, there was a need
to be aware of what was happening when it
was happening NOT learning of issues after
they occur and too late to take remedial
action. Up until this point all reporting was
developed using spreadsheets running off
clinical data being captured within the Adastra
system. There were a number of challenges
posed by this approach which included;
time taken to accurately prepare reports, in
particular NQR’s required by themselves and
their commissioners; inability to be able to
‘drill down’ easily or at all to original data
to analyse in depth any particular issues

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HEALTH BUSINESS MAGAZINE | Volume 16.5

incorporating and combining other data
sources to provide a more holistic view of
operations; and difficulty in fulfilling ad hoc
requests in a timely manner for information
required by various stakeholders.
FLEXIBLE AND DYNAMIC
MI View from Total Intelligence Ltd was
chosen as the solution most suitable to
provide CHoC with a more flexible and
dynamic reporting environment for the
following reasons. Other similar organisations
had successfully managed to move from
predominately spreadsheet based reporting
to using MI View. MI View was relatively
quick to install, implement and be trained to
use, so return on investment was attractive.
Developing the necessary reports and
dashboards was intuitive and very quick.
MI View provided CHoC with the opportunity
to move to a real time reporting environment.
CHoC now produce all their key operational
reports through MI View which encompass;
reports showing a variety of metrics including
capacity versus demand, demand versus
forecast, GP attendance rates, case closure
types, productivity, walk in rates, referral
sources (A & E, Ambulance, 111), referral on
rates (A & E, Ambulance, Hospital) and clinical
presentations. Quality and performance reports
showing performance trends against NQR’s
and locally agreed quality measures as well
as metrics identified above. A live dashboard
showing current and rolling demand (county
wide and by location), walk in rates, 111
rates, waiting times and current cases. A live

map showing the location of vehicles and
all current outstanding home visits. Current
home visits coordinates are taken from
Adastra whilst Tom Tom’s feed in the current
coordinates every 30 seconds giving the
most up-to-date geographical positions.
The benefits of implementing MI
View have been impressive.
Regular Operational meetings have been
extended by half an hour as the operational
data now available for analysis is so
much richer leading to improvements in
productivity and utilisation of resources whilst
external recipients such as commissioners
have been impressed and now have much
better visibility over CHoC’s services.
THE ENABLING TECHNOLOGY
MI View was developed to be a ‘game
changer’ in the world of business intelligence
solutions. Virtually all presently available
solutions in this area were developed decades
ago and it shows in their lack of flexibility
and the cost, whether to buy or implement or
both. Compared to its competitors, MI View
is quick to set up and is firmly aimed at the
world of self service. Today’s organisations
do not have the appetite for needlessly
long projects to generate management
and operational intelligence, to be able to
continuously improve the management of
their operations. The process of responding
to ad hoc demands for information should
take minutes, not days or even weeks,
and shouldn’t necessarily require the
involvement of expensive IT resources. MI
View was developed with this new age in
mind, not for the world that existed decades
ago when information requirements were
rather more ‘analogue than digital’.
CHoC QUOTE
MI View has enabled CHoC to become much
more aware of what has happened, what
is happening and what is likely to happen
therefore becoming a valued tool in our
goal to providing the best possible care to
the residents and visitors to Cumbria. L
FURTHER INFORMATION
www.totalintelligence.co.uk

HEALTHCARE APPS
 along with how to report problems.
You should think about what you will do with
the results and the information that the app is
giving you. If the app is giving you significant
health information then be sure you will
understand the result and you know what
you need to do when you get the result.
THE IMPORTANCE OF A CE MARK
When an app developer applies a ‘CE mark’
they are claiming that the app is fit for the
purpose it claims and it is acceptably safe to
use. The CE mark should be visible on the app

marked. If you see a medical device app that
does not have a CE mark, then you can report
it to MHRA through our Yellow Card Scheme.
Once you are sure the app is right for
you and it is CE marked then you should
follow the instructions carefully. Be honest
with the information you put into the app.
If you enter wrong information about
yourself, the app may not give you the right
result. Ensure that you always update the
app to the newest compatible version.
Tell MHRA if you have any problems with
the app not working as stated through our

Where apps make a diagnosis or recommend a
treatment, people should check for CE‑marking
before using their apps and developers
should make sure they are complying with the
appropriate medical device regulations
when you are looking at it in the app store or
on the further information or ‘landing’ page.
This information should also tell you what
the app can be used for and how to use it. If
you can’t see these details or are unsure we
suggest you contact the developer to ask and
in the meantime that you don’t use it. Please
use only medical device apps that are CE

Yellow Card Scheme. This could be: if the
instructions are not clear or the app is
difficult to use; if the app isn’t giving you
the results you expected; or if you have any
concerns over the safety of the app or the
information that it provides. You should also
contact the developer of the app to tell them.
It is important that you have read the small

print to understand what personal data
you may have agreed to share with the
developer by signing up to the app and
how they might store or use your data. This
includes information about you such as your
name, address, date of birth and information
about your health. If you are in any doubt
about the information that the app has
given you or you are concerned about your
health you should consult a healthcare
professional such as a doctor or pharmacist.
RESPONSIBILITY
Manufacturers have a responsibility
to implement an effective post-market
surveillance system to ensure that any
problems or risks associated with the use of
their device are identified early, reported to
the relevant authorities, and acted upon. L
Read the guidance here: www.gov.uk/
government/uploads/system/uploads/
attachment_data/file/549127/
Software_flow_chart_Ed_1-01.pdf

The MHRA, an executive agency, sponsored
by the Department of Health, regulates
medicines, medical devices and blood
components for transfusion in the UK.
FURTHER INFORMATION
mhra.gov.uk

Specialist Services for the Healthcare Sector
AfPP are the UK’s leading professional association for operating theatre practitioners and
are renowned for setting standards and best practice in this area. The AfPP Academy is our
dedicated training arm designed to support you to develop the right culture for safety within
your hospital.
We can help you to:
- improve patient safety
- reduce the likelihood of Never Events occuring
- create a more cohesive theatre department

The show that
puts patient
safety first
Patient First, the national event for patient safety and infection
prevention and control, returns to the ExCeL on 22-23 November.
Health Business looks at the various conference streams
Patient First, in association with Sign
up to Safety and The AHSN Network, is
the largest conference and exhibition
covering patient safety and infection
prevention and control, providing strategic
and practical content for doctors, nurses,
pharmacists, the management community
and other healthcare professionals in the
NHS and the independent sector provider
and commissioner communities.
Returning to the ExCeL for two days,
delegates, including medical directors,
nursing directors, IPC Leads, pharmacists,
patient safety, governance and risk
managers and other senior NHS and CCG
members from across the UK, will benefit
from a programme of unparalleled CPD
accredited content delivered by a faculty of
world‑class speakers and experts in their field.
Lucy Pitt, Patient First marketing director,
comments: “Patient safety remains at the
heart of healthcare. Structural, cultural
and financial pressures play their part in
adding to the challenges brought by a
growing – and more elderly – population.
But in a post-Mid Staffordshire era the
momentum on improving the quality and
safety of healthcare is greater than ever

and Patient First brings all stakeholders
together to embrace a learning culture.”
WHAT’S NEW?
This year, there are a host of new attractions,
theatres and workshops where delegates can
enhance their development and understanding
of patient safety. There will be a series of
round tables including: NAPC new models of
care; HFMA cost cutting and patient safety;
embedding patient safety into the culture of
the organisation with PCAW; and learnings
from the VMI programme. There will also be
a round table interactive learning session
in the Sign up to Safety feature area.
This is enhanced by the introduction of
three new theatres: the AHSN Best Practice
Theatre, the HQIP & NQICAN Quality
Improvement Theatre and the Dedicated Safety
through Technology Theatre. Co-located with
the dedicated Infection Prevention & Control
conference, the show will also see a Hospice
UK dedicated IPC workshop and hands-on skills
training from BBraun & Beckton Dickenson.
THE PLENARY THEATRE
The Plenary Theatre, covering big topics
affecting patient safety, will begin with Jim

Mackey, chief executive of NHS Improvement,
delivering the opening address. Mackey, who
was previously chief executive of Northumbria
Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, has a keen
interest in quality of care, especially patient
and family experience, and has participated
in a number of reviews and national projects,
including the Dalton Review in 2014.
Samantha Jones, director of New Care
Models Programme, within the Five Year
Forward View, will then be joined by Malte
Gerhold, the Care Quality Commission’s
interim executive director of strategy
and intelligence, to address ‘New care
models and what they mean for safety’.
Samantha will be overseeing the launch
of 50 vanguards which are taking the lead
on the developing new care models which
will act as the blueprints for the NHS.
‘Safe care is efficient care: Progress and
strategic learning from the VMI programme’
will outlines the progress made by the five
trusts mentored by influential US hospital
Virginia Mason through its Virginia Mason
Institute - Shrewsbury & Telford NHS Trust;
University Hospitals Coventry & Warwickshire
NHS Trust; Barking, Havering & Redbridge
NHS Trust; Surrey & Sussex Healthcare NHS
Trust; The Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS
Trust. The programme will help these rusts
adopt lean methodologies to improve
quality, productivity and efficiency in their
work. Matthew Hopkins, chief executive of
Barking, Havering & Redbridge NHS Trust
will have the aid of Simon Wright, chief
executive of Shrewsbury & Telford Hospital
NHS Trust, to deliver this informative session.
The second day in the Plenary Theatre will
hear from Mike Durkin, director of Patient
Safety at NHS Improvement as he lays
down his thoughts on ‘Evolving
national patient safety
strategy’. This will
be followed
be a E

Volume 16.5 | HEALTH BUSINESS MAGAZINE

63

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Patient First

EVENT PREVIEW
 seminar entitled ‘Candour, transparency
and whistleblowing’, before Helen Hogan,
senior lecturer in Public Health at the
London School of Hygiene and Tropical
Medicine, covers what was learnt from the
PRISM studies and what can and cannot be
achieved by undertaking mortality reviews.
The theatre will close with Donna Forsyth,
head of investigation at the Healthcare
Safety Investigation Branch, share her
session on ‘Learning from fatal claims’,
where she will explain claims trends
in recent years and how taking steps early
on in the process where there is a fatality
can ensure that both the family and staff
are supported through the processes that
follow and that lessons are learned.
PATIENT SAFETY
THROUGH TECHNOLOGY
The Patient Safety Through Technology Theatre
will start with Ann Slee, ePrescribing lead of
digital technology at NHS England, discussing
what the Wachter Review means for patient
safety. Joined on stage by Wai Keong Wong,
consultant haematologist at University
College London Hospitas Foundation
Trust, the Wachter Review,
published in September,
claimed that a ‘digitally
mature’ NHS can be
achieved by 2023, but not
without extra funding.
Glen Hodgson, head
of healthcare at GS1
UK, will lead a session
on the second day of
the conference looking
at the GS1 standards
implementation journey.
With the help of Keith Jones,
clinical director for Surgery, and
Kevin Downs, director of Finance
and Performance, both at Derby Teaching
Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, the
seminar will look at the rollout at Derby
and illustrate how a project that started
out as a procurement device, transformed
into a much more significant vehicle
with benefits for patient safety, clinical
effectiveness and financial control.
Further success stories will be shared
in Paul Rice’s discussion on the Nursing
Technology Fund and the Integrated
Digital Care technology Fund. Paul is the
head of Technology Strategy in the Digital
Health team in NHS England, and leads
the team that is instrumental in delivering
a digitally enabled and ‘paperless’ NHS.
The theatre will also hear from: Ian Pocock,
director of Service Design at NHS England
on the digital behaviour change and ‘Using
technology to support prevention and improve
management of conditions’; a review of the
progress of the Test Bed sites evaluating the
real world impact of new technologies for
better care and better value; and ‘Innovations
for safety: SBRI Healthcare and AHSNs’, led by

The Infection Prevention
& Control stream, split into two
theatres, has an array of leading experts
sharing their knowledge and advice
with the audience of the show. Kicking
things off in the Infection Prevention &
Control Theatre 1, John Watson, deputy
chief medical officer at the Department
of Health, will discuss ‘Antimicrobial
resistance: it’s as bad as they say it is’.
This seminar will be followed by Jon Otter, an
epidemiologist at Imperial College Healthcare
London NHS Trust, analysing the growing
dangers around Carbapenemase‑producing
Enterobacteriaceae (CPE). CPE are an
emerging threat to healthcare facilities
worldwide, combining the ‘triple threat’
of high levels of antibiotic resistance, the
potential for causing untreatable infections,
and the risk of rapid spread. This talk will
provide an overview of the challenge we
are facing, and how we need to respond.
Survival of pathogenic bacteria on
environmental surfaces contributes to
increasing incidence and spread of antibiotic
resistance and infection in hospitals etc. In
addition to coughs and sneezes, a major

problem is infrequent washing of hands
which then contaminate surfaces. One way to
address this could be to use biocidal surfaces
in conjunction with improved cleaning
regimes. Bill Keevil, professor of environmental
healthcare at the University of Southampton,
will present ‘The case for Antimicrobial
Copper’ in the afternoon of the first day in
the Infection Prevention & Control Theatre 1.
The second day will witness Tim Briggs,
national director for clinical quality and
efficiency for the NHS, address ‘Deep
wound infections’, before Public Health
England’s Diane Ashiru-Oredope, pharmacist
lead for the AMR Programme, delves
into ‘IPC and antimicrobial stewardship:
Training for HCPs, the public and
patient engagement to tackle AMR’.
SafeHands is a patient safety programme
using information from radio-frequency and
infra-red hardware locating devices attached
to patients, staff and assets to automate
patient flows, real time bed management,
alerts and alarms, equipment, staff and patient
interactions, and can monitor hand hygiene in
real-time. ‘Safe hands or big brother? Using
real-time locating technology to improve
patient safety’ will be presented by Clare Nash,
programme manager for SafeHands, and Neil
Jarvis, ward manager of respiratory medicine,
at The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust.
‘Implementing the latest Government
ambitions about gram negative bacteria in the
whole health economy’ will explore how E

Negotiating where the line should be drawn between
unacceptable behaviour and blameless unsafe acts
In 2014, the PHSO published
a report relating to the tragic
death of three-year-old Sam
Morrish. It found Sam would
have survived had he received
appropriate care and treatment. However, whilst the
2014 report confirmed that
Sam’s death was avoidable, it
didn’t provide a satisfactory
explanation as to why the
local NHS failed to uncover
what happened and therefore couldn’t ensure
that necessary learning took place. At the
request of Sam’s parents, the PHSO undertook a new investigation to look at why.
They found that the local investigation
process was not fit for purpose, was not
sufficiently independent, inquisitive, open
or transparent and that the people carrying
out the investigation were not adequately
trained. It’s a hard hitting, compelling
document that builds on the now strong
evidence base that tells us there is an urgent need for change in the way the NHS
responds and learns from mistakes.
When the report was published, Ombudsman
Dame Julie Mellor commented: “We hope

that this case acts as a wake-up call for NHS
leaders to support a no-blame culture in which
leaders and staff in every NHS organisation
feel confident to find out if and why something went wrong and to learn from it.”
The sentiment of the message is absolutely
right, but as with so many areas of healthcare, language can be very important and
the phrase ‘no-blame’ is one which I know
can lead to misunderstandings. Although
‘no-blame’ is still frequently mentioned in
healthcare as being desirable, it is outdated
and has largely been superseded in other
industries by the concept of ‘just culture’.
In September 2004, a report looking at
culture in aviation was published in which
renowned safety expert James Reason

wrote the following:
“The term ‘no-blame
culture’ flourished in the
1990s and still endures
today. Compared to the
largely punitive cultures
that it sought to replace,
it was clearly a step in the
right direction…But the
‘no-blame’ concept had
two serious weaknesses.
First, it ignored—or, at
least, failed to confront—those individuals who wilfully (and often repeatedly)
engaged in dangerous behaviours that
most observers would recognise as being
likely to increase the risk of a bad outcome.
Second, it did not properly address the
crucial business of distinguishing between
culpable and non-culpable unsafe acts.”
“In my view, a safety culture depends
critically upon first negotiating where the
line should be drawn between unacceptable
behaviour and blameless unsafe acts.”
FURTHER INFORMATION
Tel: 020 8971 1971
www.datix.co.uk

Leading patient safety
innovation for 30 years

Datix has been a global pioneer
in the field of patient safety over
the past three decades and today
is the leading provider of software
for patient safety, risk management
and incident reporting for the health
care sector. We aim to build and
promote a culture of safety within
healthcare organisations.

 a cohesive whole health economy approach
can contribute to reducing Healthcare
associated infections (HCAIs) and infections
in general. Investment in Infection Prevention
and Control as everyone’s business is a public
good and a ‘win-win’ situation for all as an
individual health and social care provider
will be influenced by standards in other
providers with whom they share a patient
population. The theatre will close with an
‘NHS Clinical Evaluation Team Update’, led
by Clare Johnstone, clinical specialist lead,
and Liam Horkan, clinical specialist lead, both
of the National Clinical Evaluation Team.
COVERING CLEANLINESS
The second Infection Prevention & Control
Theatre will open with a discussion on
‘AMR: Primary care antibiotic prescribing’,
held by Cliodna McNulty, head of Primary
Care Unit at Public Health England, and
Alastair Monk and Deborah Giles of the
North of England Commissioning Support.
Following this, Tracey Radcliffe of the
UK Sepsis Trust and Global Sepsis Alliance,
will present on ‘OneTogether to reduce
surgical site infection’. This presentation will
describe the OneTogether partnership and
its program of work from its launch in 2013
to date and the next steps. OneTogether
has a sole objective to support clinical staff
ensure that the best infection prevention
practice is provided to every patient that
undergoes surgery. The Sepsis Trust and
Global Sepsis Alliance will also be on
stage later in the day, as Ron Daniels, CEO,
advises on the ‘Effectiveness of antibiotics
in treating sepsis: research update’.

Clean hospitals are important to patients
and the public for a number of reasons –
some symbolic and some literal – yet
delivering a consistently clean environment
is challenging and can be costly
The second day in the Infection Prevention
& Control Theatre 2 will begin with Andrea
Jenkyns, MP and chair of the All Party
Parliamentary Group on Patient Safety, reporting
on the ‘All Party Parliamentary Group Inquiry
into the effectiveness of infection procedures
in the NHS: zero tolerance, patient information;
mandatory reporting; vascular access devices’.
Jenkyns will be assisted by Katherine Murphy,
chief executive of the Patient Association.
‘Breaking the chain of infection with
antimicrobial copper’ will address the
evidence behind and practicalities of installing
antimicrobial copper touch surfaces as an
additional infection control measure. Mark
Tur, of the Copper Development Association,
and Delly Dickson, of the East Sussex
Healthcare NHS Trust, will address how East
Sussex Healthcare Trust has taken the science
to the people, reviewing work published
by York Health Economics Consortium.
Clean hospitals are important to patients
and the public for a number of reasons – some
symbolic and some literal – yet delivering a
consistently clean environment is challenging
and can be costly. Liz Jones, head of patient
environment at the Department of Health,
will explore this with her highly anticipated

session on ‘Acute healthcare environment –
cleanliness and flow’. This presentation will
examine why a clean hospital is an essential
foundation for good infection prevention, and
will outline some of the difficult decisions that
have to be made when considering how to
deliver value for money and quality in tandem.
EXEMPLIFYING BEST PRACTICE
Sponsored by the ASHN Network, the Best
Practice Theatre will provide case studies and
examples of best practice to encourage a
more efficient and safe NHS. Starting with a
session on ‘Implementing self-administration
of insulin in hospital – a toolkit for change
‘, Melissa Richards and Vicki Rowse will talk
about their journey and the development of
a toolkit to support hospitals in introducing
and embedding self-administration of Insulin
for as many patients as are able to and
willing to do this. 40 per cent of patients
treated with insulin experience one or more
errors while in hospital, with this session
arguing that a trust wide approach is
necessary for successful implementation.
‘Communities of practice: changing perceptions
of change’ will provide a brief overview of
the theory behind communities of E

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Learn more on our website at www.imprivata.co.uk or call us now +44 208744 6500

68

HEALTH BUSINESS MAGAZINE | Volume 16.5

EVENT PREVIEW
 practice as well discuss how the
communities of practice (CoP) concept has
been used in practice to successful influence
change and embed innovation on a local and
regional scale. Cheryl Crocker, regional lead
EMAHSN PSC, and Katherine Joel, senior
project manager at the Health Innovation
Network, will provide practical examples of
how CoPs have been used across AHSNs in
order to drive local and regional improvement.
The first day will close with a seminar
on ‘Sailing the seventh C’. In this session,
Attainability UK’s Trevor Dale will discuss
the missing ‘C’ in healthcare – Confidence.
Understanding our inevitable fallibility
and knowing how to combat it enables
confidence and many high performing
professionals can be blind to, ignore or
misunderstand their own and other’s mistakes,
unable to use the learning and move on.
The highlight of day two in the Best
Practice stream of Patient First will see
Dawn Scott, CEO, and Mona Guckian
Fisher, president, of the Association for
Perioperative Practice, discuss ‘Maintaining
momentum: sustaining high performance’.
THE EXHIBITION
Patient’s First’s unique integrated conference
and hall also gives delegates access
to get advice and learn from over 100
product and service providers on the busy

great and is very relevant for me. I’ve also
been impressed by the range of technology
at the show and seeing what a difference
it can make in releasing clinical time.”
Emmanuel Idowa, pharmacist, Maidstone
& Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust, added: “There’s
a lot of content at this show and it’s very
interesting to hear the latest thinking
from the experts. I work in antibiotics,

Patient First, in association with Sign up to
Safety and The AHSN Network, is the largest
conference and exhibition covering patient
safety and infection prevention and control
Safety – The Connected Clinical Environment’,
while Sign up to Safety will be hosting a
series of interactive workshops from their
feature area. Together with a range of round
tables sessions hosted by the HFMA, PCAW,
NAPC amongst others, delegates have a huge
choice of learning styles over the two days.
Speaking after last year’s show, Raymond
Guirguis, pharmacy manager, Princess Grace
Hospital, said: ”This has been really good
for seeing new ideas and innovations and
for learning from other people’s lessons in
patient safety. The talk on Incident report was

so it has been useful to see how other
professionals approach patient safety.”
Duncan Hall, senior incident investigator,
North East London Foundation Trust,
concludes: “This is a great show for getting
inspiration from what other people are
doing. One of the sessions I attended
at last year’s show really helped one of
my investigations and genuinely made a
difference, which is why I’m back for more.” L
FURTHER INFORMATION
www.patientfirstuk.com

Making medicines right
GEN/UK/0009/16
October 16

EthypharmUK_HB16.5_HP.indd 1

20/10/2016 10:50

Volume 16.5 | HEALTH BUSINESS MAGAZINE

69

The Conference Programme
Plenary Theatre
Time

Tuesday 22nd November

Time

09:00
09:30

Quality as a driver for change – from seven day
services and new models of care, to leadership,
culture and efficiency
Ben Gummer, Parliamentary Under Secretary of
Secretary of State for Health, Department of Health

09:50
10:35

09:55
10:45

Building patient safety capacity at a local level
Dr Suzette Woodward, National Campaign Director,
Sign up to Safety
Dr Rosie Benneyworth, Managing Director,
South West AHSN

11:25
11:55

Session delivered by Royal Voluntary Service
David McCullough, Chief Executive,
Royal Voluntary Service

Professor Tim Briggs, National Director for Clinical
Quality and Efficiency for the NHS and Consultant
Orthopaedic Surgeon, Royal National Orthopaedic
Hospital
Safe hands or big brother? Using real-time locating
technology to improve patient safety

Delivering technology
advisory services and
innovation management
Health Enterprise
East (HEE) is a
leading NHS
innovation hub
committed to
improving
healthcare through
the provision of
professional business
and innovation management
services. The HEE team works
with NHS organisations
nationally and Med Tech
companies globally to support
the development of innovative
products and services
which meet currently unmet
healthcare needs. The company
offers a broad range of
tailored services from strategic
analysis and market validation,
to practical advice and insight.
HEE is also in the process
of developing an exciting
new fund with a number of
partners aimed at facilitating
the early stage development
of medical technology and

software innovations from within
the NHS. The new venture will
support and finance projects
through early stage proof
of principle to maximise the
chances of success further down
the development pipeline.
For more information on
the services offered by HEE
and to find out how it could
help your business, visit the
company website or call
to speak to an adviser.
FURTHER INFORMATION
Tel: 01223 928040
enquiries@hee.co.uk
www.hee.co.uk

Health Enterprise East –

Delivering technology advisory
and innovation management
services to industry and the NHS

Offering a wide range of
courses in healthcare
The School of Medicine has
a range of taught Master’s
courses, all of which are modular
in format and which can be
accessed as short courses or with
credits transferable between
Master’s level courses elsewhere
in the Faculty of Medicine
& Health Sciences. Many
courses are available to health
professionals from disciplines
other than medicine and are
relevant to clinicians engaged
in primary and secondary care.
It also offers a range of clinical
leadership and management
courses and development
programmes for clinicians
working in the NHS and in the
private and voluntary sectors,
which are delivered at Keele or
on a bespoke basis at venues
throughout the country.
The School aims to equip
participants with the
knowledge, understanding
and skills to enable them to
act with confidence in their
roles. To make this possible,
it maintains strong links with

both national and local policy
makers to ensure that courses
and programmes are aligned
to the vision and direction of
modern, world class healthcare.
The School’s vision is to support
safe, effective and innovative
healthcare in the UK through
improving the skills of clinicians
and health professionals, at
all levels, who are, or will be
involved in the leadership and
management of health services.
FURTHER INFORMATION
www.keele.ac.uk/medicine

kits. Centralised stock holding
eliminates the need for each
theatre area to hold stock of each
item which may be required.
To reduce waste, kits only include
the items that are normally
needed during an operation.
This avoids clinical staff
opening packaging and getting
additional just-in-case items
ready, which are subsequently
wasted. Phil Lapish comments:
“The cost per operation is down
by between 2.5 and 7.4 per
cent in the specialties where the
solution was first deployed.”
FURTHER INFORMATION
www.rfiddiscovery.com

e
at us o
Pa n
tie sta
nt nd
Fir M
st 61

Cambridge University Hospitals
NHS Trust (CUH) is believed
to be the first Trust in the UK
to introduce a theatre kitting
service with Radio Frequency
Identification (RFID) technology.
Using Harland Simon’s RFID
Discovery Inventory system
to centralise and streamline
the management of theatre
supplies, CUH has optimised
stock holding, minimised waste
and enabled theatre nurses to
spend more time on patient care.
The system tracks items used
in operations with passive RFID
labels and interfaces with CUH’s
inventory database. Phillip
Lapish, supply chain manager,
explains: “This enables us to
accurately capture the cost of
each operation and at the same
time allows clinical staff to
focus on patient care delivery.”
The Trust prepares around 100 to
120 patient specific kits per day
for elective procedures plus 50
for emergency and contingency

Se

t: 01908 276700
www.rfiddiscovery.com

Once downloaded, the
content is available offline.
MedHand sells individual apps
on the various app stores, but
also offers special institutional
subscription packages via a
free download, the MedHand
Mobile Libraries app. Institutional
subscriptions include downloads
to five devices and all new
editions published during the
subscription period, as well
as offering subscribers the
option to add their own local
documentation (i.e. local
guidelines) to the app.
MedHand customers include a
number of NHS Trusts as well as
medical schools and colleges.
FURTHER INFORMATION
Tel: 07833 451595
sales@medhand.net
www.medhand.com

MedHand provides mobile resources
for healthcare professionals at the
point of need.

MedHand International provides
mobile resources that are used
by thousands of healthcare
professionals, medical trainees
and medical students to provide
answers at the point of care,
sometimes in remote locations.
MedHand works with all the
leading healthcare publishers
(e.g. OUP, Wiley, Elsevier,
etc.) and offers hundreds of
authoritative medical, nursing
and other healthcare titles
in mobile app format.
MedHand apps are available
in iOS and Android formats
(Windows to come) and have
fantastic functionalities, such as
complex search, bookmarking,
highlighting and annotation
(text and images). They include
in-built medical, nursing and
dentistry dictionaries, plus more
than 30 medical calculators.

The MedHand Mobile Libraries App provides
hundreds of authoritative medical, nursing and
other healthcare titles from leading publishers
that are available offline after initial download.
The App offers fantastic functionalities,
including sophisticated search, bookmarking,
in-built specialist dictionaries, highlighting and
annotation (text and images).
Institutional subscribers
automatically receive new
editions, and can choose
a flexible title package
that may include local
content (e.g. local
guidelines).
Contact MedHand today
to find out more:
sales@medhand.net;
07833 451595

Working in partnership to
achieve excellence in public
and global health research

Early detection of
deteriorating patients:
Sepsis, AKI and more

The London School of
Hygiene & Tropical
Medicine is an
internationally
renowned centre for
research and
postgraduate education
in public and global health,
with 4,000 students and more
than 1,000 staff working
in over 100 countries. The
School’s mission is to improve
health and health equity in the
UK and worldwide; working
in partnership to achieve
excellence in public and global
health research, education
and translation of knowledge
into policy and practice.
The School is highly ranked
in various global university
league tables. In 2015, it was
ranked third in the world for
social sciences and public
health in the 2015 US News
Best Global Universities
Ranking. The School was
rated by the 2016 CWTS

iMDsoft is a global
leader in clinical
information systems.
Hospitals and health
networks worldwide,
including more than 20
NHS hospitals, use the
MetaVision CIS for critical
care. The company’s mobile
electronic observation system,
MetaVision SafeTrack™, offers
advanced options for early
identification of patients at
risk for lethal conditions.
The system provides smart
alerts for sepsis and AKI, based
on NICE guidelines, which
prompt clinicians to take
action. Tools for screening and
assessments make it easier
to check for conditions such
as venous thromboembolism
(VTE) and to calculate scores
such as MUST and GCS.
Hospitals can create additional
alerts or screening forms for
any condition they define.
In addition, MetaVision

Leiden Ranking as Europe’s
top university and fifth in the
world for research impact.
It offers 18 London-based
masters; six via distance
learning; research degrees
and short study courses.
The teaching programme has
a combination of laboratorybased biological courses and
social science courses to cover all
areas of public and population
health, epidemiology, control of
infectious diseases and tropical
medicine. It has also launched
a series of free online courses.
FURTHER INFORMATION
www.lshtm.ac.uk/study

•
•
•
•

Master’s degrees
Research degrees
Short courses
Free online courses

Improving health worldwide

74

HEALTH BUSINESS MAGAZINE | Volume 16.5

FURTHER INFORMATION
Tel: +44 7500 839677
Mike.Carey@imd-soft.com

Working in partnership
with patients and staff to
improve care outcomes

PASSIONATE ABOUT
GLOBAL HEALTH?

Postgraduate programmes in
global health and infectious
diseases. Study in London or
by distance learning:

SafeTrack offers all the
advantages of a mobile electronic
observation solution, ensuring
faster intervention for patients in
need. It helps nurses document
vital signs and observations at
the bedside, calculates early
warning scores and provides
options for immediate escalations
to caregivers. Nurses work more
effectively and can prioritise care
with tools for task management
and shift handover. The system
processes all of the information
that is collected to generate
reports that help improve
hospital performance.

Enabling simple and secure
patient data transactions
Imprivata® provides healthcare
organisations globally with a
security and identity platform
that delivers authentication
management, fast access to
patient information, secure
communications and positive
patient identification. Imprivata
enables care providers to
securely and efficiently access,
communicate and transact
patient health information to
address critical compliance
and security challenges while
improving productivity and
the patient experience.
At PatientFirst, Imprivata will
be showcasing its range of
healthcare security solutions.
OneSign®, the Imprivata
Authentication and Access
management platform, is
recognised as the leading
healthcare enterprise single
sign-on solution used by the
majority of NHS hospitals. It
enables care providers to securely
access clinical and administrative
applications without the need to
type different passwords, while

maintaining security best practice.
Imprivata PatientSecure, recently
introduced to the UK market,
uses palm vein biometrics for
positive patient identification,
linking patients to their full
medical record across disparate
patient record systems.
Imprivata Confirm ID™ is a
comprehensive identity and
multifactor authentication
platform for clinical transactions
such as ordering medication, drug
disposal, blood administration,
and transactions with patient
information on medical devices.
It replaces passwords with fast,
convenient methods such as
the tap of a proximity badge
or swipe of a fingerprint.
Visit Imprivata on Stand K71.
FURTHER INFORMATION
www.imprivata.com

A trusted provider of
quality medicines that
deliver sustainable value
Ethypharm is an independent
pharmaceutical company with
global reach. It is dedicated to
developing innovative drugs
to treat pain and addiction,
two major therapeutic areas
with large unmet medical
needs. Ethypharm has a unique
experience of more than 30 years
in developing its own portfolio
of drugs based on state-of–theart proprietary technologies in
oral formulation. Each year, the
company invests a significant
share of its turnover in R&D and
has a rich pipeline of products at
various stages of development.
Ethypharm also develops
complex generics that
contribute towards optimisation
of healthcare costs.
Ethypharm UK Ltd aims to be
chosen by the NHS as a trusted
provider of quality, affordable
medicines that deliver sustainable
value. Ethypharm’s medicines
currently provide treatments for
pain, depression, schizophrenia,

and Parkinson’s. Significantly as
Category C specialists, Ethypharm
is dedicated to providing
meaningful cost savings to CCG’s/
HB’s without compromising
healthcare delivery for patients
Its future portfolio continues to
build on these complex medicines
and potential cost savings,
with Ethypharm due to launch
treatments in gastroenterology,
cardiovascular disease, ADHD and
additional Parkinson treatments.
If you require further information
on Ethypharm UK or any
of its medicines please call
to speak to an adviser.
FURTHER INFORMATION
Tel: 01483 726929
info@ethypharm.co.uk

Delivering quality legal
advice to providers

Human Factors training to
boost safety for patients

Ridouts is a niche practice of
outstanding health and social
care lawyers, who offer clarity
and common sense advice when
clients need it most. In a field
dominated by generalists and
big firms, you’ll find it refreshing
to deal with lawyers who know
your sector as well as you do.
Ridouts provide services
tailored to the needs of health
and social care providers,
across a range of regulatory
and operational issues. They do
not act for regulators, service
users or commissioners. This
specialist commercial and legal
support, provided in a timely
manner, can avoid great loss
at a relatively low cost.
Ridouts gives you peace of
mind - knowing that a team of
dedicated, specialist lawyers
and consultants can be swiftly
brought together to support
you through the regulatory
and commercial challenges
your business may face.
Services include challenging
the regulator: challenging

There are many
threats to safety at
every turn, but the
human can be trained
to avoid, trap and
mitigate them
wherever possible.
Human factors non-technical
skills training has been
mandatory in aviation for many
years and Atrainability has
almost 15 years experience of
transferring them to health and
social care. Atrainability can
increase our understanding of
how the human brain functions,
how to combat fallibility and
avoid conditions that lead to
avoidable errors. That way
teams caring for patients side
by side can learn to work
more safely than ever.
Ergonomic studies of human
factors encompasses the
equipment and processes, design
and usability of equipment/
layouts, but this doesn’t address
human fallibility problems.
Human Factors training presents
learners with the understanding

and tools covering the social
skills of leadership, team working,
cooperation, management;
plus cognitive functions of
situation awareness, decision
making and more. These are
the non-technical human
factors we are all subject to.
HF non-technical training can
help individuals understand
their own fallibility and how to
combat everyday threats such
as: interruptions; distractions;
multi-tasking; stress; fatigue;
lost time; overload; and
incomplete communications.
Root cause analysis usually
finds these problems after
never events have occurred.
FURTHER INFORMATION
Tel: 01483 272987
www.atrainability.co.uk

Volume 16.5 | HEALTH BUSINESS MAGAZINE

75

AWARDS PREVIEW

Rewarding
excellence
in healthcare
The Health Business Awards return in November 2016 to once
again recognise the leading examples of excellence in the NHS
2016 has been yet another year with the NHS
firmly in the media spotlight. The standard of
the nation’s health has been scrutinised on
more levels than ever before, with the ongoing
dispute surrounding the junior doctors
contracts taking centre stage, the obesity
struggle gaining national coverage, and delays
in discharge times and regional stumbling
to meet targets paintng a bad picture.
Moreover, Professor Robert Wachter’s review,
Making IT work, claimed that a ‘digitally
mature’ NHS can be achieved by 2023, but
not without extra funding. In light of this,
with financial constraints tighter than ever,
the work of our hospitals and their staff is

in need of higher recognition and praise
than ever before. The good news coming
from the people working tirelessly to care
for the nation is cause for celebration.
Sponsored by CCube Solutions, the eighth
edition of the annual Health Business
Awards are once again taking place at the
Grange Hotel in London on 29 November.
Spread across 20 categories, NHS
Foundation Trusts, Clinical Commissioning
Groups, Collaborates, Partnerships, and
Air Ambulance Services will join together
to celebrate the very best within the NHS.
The 2016 Awards will be hosted by
London-based GP Dr Sarah Jarvis. Jarvis

is the health and medical reporter for
The One Show, a regular guest on The
Jeremy Vine Show and clinical consultant
for health website Patient_UK.
The categories in this year’s event include:
the Air Ambulance Service Award; the Clinical
Commissioning Award; the Environmental
Practice Award; the Estates and Facilities
Innovation Award; the Healthcare IT Award;
the Healthcare Recruitment Award; the
Hospital Building Award; the Hospital Catering
Award; the Hospital Cleaning Award; the
Hospital Procurement Award; the Hospital
Security Award; the Innovation in Mental
Health Award; the NHS Collaboration
Award; the NHS Finance Award; the NHS
Publicity Campaign Award; the Outstanding
Achievement in Healthcare Award; the
Patient Data Award; the Patient Safety
Award; the Sustainable Hospital Award;
and the Transport & Logistics Award. L
FURTHER INFORMATION
hbawards.co.uk

Facilities management
services for healthcare

Keeping high standards of
professionalism in parking

ISS Facility Services has retained
its contract for providing
healthcare cleaning services
at Moorfields Eye Hospital
NHS Foundation Trust, the
leading provider of eye health
services in the UK and a worldclass centre of excellence
for ophthalmic research and
education. After a competitive
tender the new contract has
been extended to include the
provision of Security Services
to the famous London site.
ISS has been providing
healthcare cleaning to the
specialist hospital since 2009.
The new contract, which could
run for the next seven years,
could have a total revenue
in excess of £10 million.
Dean Gornall, head of Facilities,
said: “After a comprehensive
tender process for Cleaning and
Manned Guarding for Moorfields
Eye Hospital at City Road, I am
pleased to confirm that ISS has
retained this contract for a
further five to seven years. The

The British Parking
Association (BPA)
is the largest, most
established and
trusted professional
association representing parking
and traffic management in
Europe. The Association is the
recognised authority within
the parking profession which
uses its influence to represent
the best interests of the sector.
The BPA also provides an
extensive range of membership
services to support parking
professionals and organisations
in their day-to-day work.
BPA’s diverse membership
community of around 700
organisations includes:
technology developers
and suppliers; equipment
manufacturers; learning
providers; consultants; structural
and refurbishment experts;
local authorities and parking
on private land operators
including retail parks; healthcare
facilities; universities; airports;

ISS submission with a strong local
leadership presence allowed the
tendering panel to conclude that
ISS were the right company to
manage these services.
Moorfields looks forward to
continuing a successful and
productive partnership.”
Chris Ash, ISS Healthcare’s
managing director, said: “This
award has only been made
possible by the continued
commitment of our local team
to working so closely with the
Trust in delivering a shared
vision of delivering the best
possible patient experience.”
FURTHER INFORMATION
info@uk.issworld.com
www.uk.issworld.com

and railways stations. The BPA
has launched a new, audited
accreditation for organisations:
the Professionalism in Parking
Accreditation (PiPA).
PiPA recognises and celebrates
the highest standards of
professionalism in parking.
Organisations that hold PiPA are
nationally recognised role-models
for parking professionalism
and excellence. The PiPA
accreditation helps to raise levels
of customer service for patients,
visitors and staff, increasing
car-park user satisfaction and
improving the reputation of
healthcare landowners. This is
an accreditation that will make
your organisation proud.
FURTHER INFORMATION
dave.s@britishparking.co.uk
www.britishparking.co.uk

Volume 16.5 | HEALTH BUSINESS MAGAZINE

77

16th & 17th November 2016
Olympia, London
www.diabetesprofessionalcare.com
FREE TO ATTEND FOR HCPs

®

Showcasing Innovation
Facilitating Dialogue
Connecting You
Diabetes Professional Care is a dynamic
exhibition and conference where
quality information is free, innovation is
showcased and connections are made.
If you are a provider or practitioner
committed to the future of diabetes care
you cannot afford to miss out on this
refreshingly different event at London’s
Olympia in November.
Diamond
sponsor:

Diabetes Professional Care 2016 is back with more innovation, an expanded show floor and a hotly
anticipated seminar programme. Health Business explore the content and innovation on display
London’s biggest diabetes show, held on
16-17 November 2016 at Olympia, offers
the perfect forum for discovering and
developing the future of diabetes care.
Visitors will be able to see the state-of‑the-art
technology, hear about the latest thinking
and research, whilst also networking
with like-minded industry experts.
For the first time ever, Jonathan Valabhji,
national clinical director for Obesity &
Diabetes at NHS England and Dr
Partha Kar, associate national
clinical director for Diabetes at
NHS England will take to the
stage together to present the
show’s first keynote session.
Valabhji will discuss ‘Diabetes
and the NHS in England
in November 2016’, while
Kar will conclude by looking
at ‘The art of the possible’.
In a major show coup, Beverley
Bryant, director of Strategic Systems
at NHS England, will be discussing
how new technologies are going to change
the face of diabetes. Driven by the need
to innovate, Bryant has been crucial in the
movement towards making the NHS paperless,
looking at the transformative powers that
technology has to offer. For those who rely
on technology or feel more faith should be
put into it, this session is not to be missed.
Samantha Jones, director of New Models of
Care at NHS England will also be presenting
on day one, analysing new models of care
in diabetes, whilst Pauline Latham MP,
chair of the Diabetes Think Tank will feature
in the afternoon session on day two.

of the skin, caused by multiple injections.
Anyone interested in diabetes and ethnicity
will not want to miss Dr Sophie Eastwood,
clinical research fellow at the Institute of
Cardiovascular Science at University College
London, analysing Type 2 diabetes in ethnic
minority groups. This presentation will
be closely followed by Dr Kesar Sadhra, GP
at Manor Park Medical Centre,
Slough, who will talk about
the practical challenges
of diabetes in the
Asian population.
As part of the
diabetes technology
and diagnostics
stream Dr David
Strain, senior
clinical lecturer at
Exeter University, will
examine the role of
Ketosis - the condition
characterised by raised
levels of ketone bodies in
the body, associated with abnormal
fat metabolism and diabetes mellitus.
Technology has become an increasingly
popular stream with the visitors, with
cutting edge innovation on show as well
as the very latest thinking. Dr Partha Kar
will take to the stage again to discuss
‘Diabetes & Technology: Overhyped or a
necessity?’, while Sue Wales will explore
how using innovations and technology
can effectively improve diabetes control.
Those looking for an update on the first
wave of the NHS National Diabetes Prevention
Programme need look no further than Dr
Jim O’Brien, national programme director
for the NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme
at Public Health England. Building on this
prevention theme, Dr David Haslam, GP and
chair of the National Obesity Forum will
analyse just how big the diabetes problem is
and look at how best to address prevention.
Karen Richardson, conference director
at Diabetes Professional Care 2016,
comments: “After the huge success of last
year’s conference programme, we wanted
to make sure we kept the momentum
going for 2016. We will host a multi-

DEDICATED STREAMS
Within the Primary and Secondary Care
stream, Debbie Hicks, a nurse consultant for
Diabetes from Enfield & Haringey Mental
Health Trust and chair of FIT UK, will take a
look at the learning curves experienced within
diabetes care since the seventies. Hicks will
also be running an interactive session on
lipohypertrophy, which will see patients being
treated live in one of the theatres, whilst
educating visitors on how to identify this
accumulation of fat underneath the surface

stream programme, covering the full
diabetes spectrum from technologies,
diagnostics and prevention to commissioning,
paediatrics and primary and secondary care.
“We want our conference to be the forum
where new ideas are born, understanding is
deepened, solutions are progressed and hot
topics like DKA, Monogenic Diabetes and
Biosimilars are addressed. Our focus is clear
– we want to increase the empowerment of
patients and create better patient outcomes.”
INNOVATIVE SHOWFLOOR
In addition to the seven stream CPD-certified
conference programme, Diabetes Professional
Care 2016 will play host to major suppliers
from across Europe who will use the show
to launch their latest developments in
medicine, technology, life sciences, healthy
living and lifestyle and wound care.
For instance, Hicom will debut its
Community Module, a new innovation
that will enable DSNs and GPwSis to truly
take care out into the community, without
breaking the security needed when taking
data out of the hospital network.
Launching a ‘world first’ is Cellnovo,
with its mobile diabetes management
system, comprised of three parts – an
insulin patch pump that is small, discreet
and tubeless, a wireless touchscreen
handset with an integrated blood glucose
meter, and an online platform that
automatically syncs data to the cloud,
making it available anytime, anywhere.
If it is measurement you are after head
to the GlucoRx stand. It will be presenting its
Nexus meter range, which utilises advanced
GDH-FAD enzyme technology for fast,
precise and reliable blood glucose results.
The GlucoRx HCT meter and smartphone
dongle have Haematocrit Correction
Technology and measure blood glucose,
ketones, haematocrit and haemoglobin.
A series of educational visual aids have
been launched by X-Pert Health, which will
be presented live on the showfloor. This
will include its nutrition for health plate
model, its fat awareness magnetic labels,
its food labeling guide and its revised
patient handbook. E

Diabetes management is about to be seen
in a new light. The Contour®Next ONE
smart meter seamlessly connects to the
Contour® DIABETES App to capture remarkably
accurate blood glucose readings.1,2 This new
system gives patients the ability to share their
results with you to help focus your discussions
with them. Meanwhile, they can easily log daily
activities to help them understand how these
affect their blood glucose and to manage their
diabetes, smarter.

For further information on the Contour®Next ONE meter contact your local Ascensia
Diabetes Care representative on 01635 566331 or visit contournextone.co.uk

EVENT PREVIEW
 Ascensia Diabetes Care will be
demonstrating the new Contour Next One
blood glucose monitoring system, the next
exciting development in the evolution of
self‑monitoring of blood glucose for people with
diabetes. Ascensia Diabetes Care believe that
the Contour Next One blood glucose monitoring
systems can be a significant advance for people
with diabetes. These systems combine the
remarkable accuracy of Contour Next meter
platforms with the easy-to-use features of the
Contour Diabetes App to provide insights that
help patients to better manage their condition.
These systems enable people with diabetes
to learn more about their condition and make
the appropriate management decisions.
RESOURCES AND INNOVATION
Launching live at the show, through interactive
workshops, is the Forum for Injection
Technique (FIT UK) with its UK Injection
Technique Recommendations, focusing
on best practice. Every visitor to the workshop
will receive their own personal copy of the
recommendations, plus they will have access
to the many tools and resources developed
by FIT UK to ensure that people with diabetes
who inject, get the best possible outcome from
their injected insulin or GLP-1 receptor agonist
by using the correct injection technique.
Neuropad will be showcasing its patented
10-minute home and clinic based screening

DPC-Noctura 400-Advert.indd 1

test, for the early detection of diabetic
foot syndrome (peripheral neuropathy);
a condition which can lead to serious
complications such as foot ulceration and
even amputation. The test is completely
painless and uses sudomotor dysfunction
as a proxy for autonomic neuropathy.
Free resources and support will be provided
for all visitors interested in type 1 diabetes
by JDRF, the type 1 diabetes charity, and the
world’s leading charitable funder of type 1
research. These resources cover both adults
and children with type 1 and cover diagnosis,
school, teens, university, pregnancy and more.
For those interested in innovation
within the support network, Advanced
Therapeutics will be introducing its Dario
Smart Meter, which turns smart phones
into a fully equipped diabetes management
tool. This all-in-one meter design is not only
attractive, but functional and convenient
fitting discreetly into pockets or bags. This
complete, cloud-based solution, gives you
and your support network real-time tools
and actionable information that make
it easy to track and better understand
your glucose levels, carbohydrate intake,
calorie expenditure and insulin dosage
via the carb/insulin bolus calculator.
METEDA will be showcasing an array of
products, including the NeuroTester Air, its
renewed system for the guided execution

and automated processing of Cardiac
Autonomic Neuropathy tests which comprise
the Deep Breathing, the Lying to Standing
and the Valsalva Manoeuvre tests.
Toby Baker, event director of Diabetes
Professional Care, comments: “It is great
to see so many leading names getting
behind the show, with more on the way.
We are delighted that the show has gone
from strength to strength, attracting
new exhibitors and sponsors from across
the diabetes arena, many of whom have
chosen DPC2016 as the place to launch their
new diabetes solution. I can’t wait for the
doors to open, it is going to be electric.”
Diabetes Professional Care will also
host an array of show features including:
The Innovation Zone, which provides the
opportunity to get close to the people
and technologies shaping the future of
diabetes care; The Commissioning Zone,
where high-level public health decision
and policy makers can converse and
interact in their own space; and, returning
by popular demand, The Diabetes Village,
a dedicated networking and lounge area
where Healthcare Professionals working in
primary and secondary can share experiences
and best practice over a relaxed coffee. L

Providing a non-invasive
prevention and treatment
for diabetic eye disease

The Noctura 400 Sleep Mask,
by PolyPhotonix Medical, is a
monitored ophthalmic treatment
for Diabetic Retinopathy and
Diabetic Macular Oedema.
The mask can be used at any
stage of disease progression and
is now available for clinical use.
The non-invasive technology
involves a soft fabric mask housing
a pod that delivers a precise
dose of light therapy during a
patient’s normal hours of sleep.
It works by reducing the oxygen
demand of the eye’s retina during
the night. This lowers the risk of
retinal hypoxia, which has been
shown to be a key contributing
factor in the development of
retinopathy in diabetes patients.
This award-winning, innovative
device differs entirely from current

18/08/2016 12:43

treatments, such as intravitreal
injections or retinal laser therapy,
which require frequent hospital
attendances and are often
invasive and uncomfortable.
These procedures are expensive
for the NHS, inconvenient for the
patient, and are generally given
only when eye complications
have advanced to a late stage.
The Noctura 400 sleep mask
is easy to use, cost-effective and
offers treatment and prevention. It
is fully CE marked, based on proven
safety and efficacy data, and can
be delivered at a fraction of the
current treatment cost. To see for
yourself visit the Noctura website.
FURTHER INFORMATION
Tel: 01740 669143
noctura.com

Over 800 delegates and 100 exhibitors came together for the infection prevention conference
of the year, Infection Prevention 2016 on the 26-28 September 2016 in Harrogate.
Here, the Infection Prevention Society look back over the key messages from the show
This year’s scientific programme welcomed
an array of renowned speakers offering
delegates the latest in infection prevention
research, education and expertise. With so
much to offer throughout the three-day
multi-stream programme it was difficult to
select only a handful of sessions to review.
EMERGING THREATS AND
PREVENTION OPPORTUNITIES
Professor Heather Loveday welcomed
Professor A.P.R Wilson, consultant
microbiologist at University College London,
to the stage to deliver an overview of current

82

HEALTH BUSINESS MAGAZINE | Volume 16.5

and emerging threats in the world of infection
and described a range of the infection
prevention challenges we face. A rapid
increase of Multi Drug Resistant (MDR) gram
negative organisms combined with a dearth
of new antibiotics sees us entering a new
phase in healthcare, where infections become
increasingly difficult to treat. Professor
Wilson described two patients
that recently presented with
infections that no antibiotics
could combat. Although
both patients survived,
he predicts that not all

patients will be as lucky in the future.
Suppression regimes are not available for
MDR gram negative organisms and screening
programmes to identify gut carriage are
viewed as invasive- while eradication is not
considered possible. It remains that infection
prevention practice is the best defence we
have and key to slowing the inevitable
crisis in healthcare. Professor
Wilson set the scene for this
year’s conference and
provided a reminder
of the importance
of learning in a

EM COTTRELL LECTURE
Our new president, Dr Neil Wigglesworth
welcomed Professor Mary Dixon-Woods, a
fellow at the Academy of Social Sciences and
the Academy of Medical Sciences, to deliver
the prestigious Cottrell Lecture. A light-hearted
personal potato (yes potato) and meningitis
tale to illustrate the similar challenges we
have in infection prevention and control and
how we create structures and address the
realities of how we behave as humans set the
scene for Professor Dixon-Woods lecture.
Having set the scene she then described how
when you try to map clinical systems they are
largely chaotic and many of the basic systems
we need to deliver care are not standardised
or harmonised. When you observe healthcare
professionals do their work they are often
spending huge amounts of time dealing
with challenges, even something as simple
as how you know if this commode is clean?
Professor Dixon-Woods suggested we have
to get beyond individual versus systems and
have to have collective competence. There
is a need to get beyond that the belief it is
only interventions and we need to go back to
our professionalism and what that means.
If we are going to improve Improvement
in infection prevention and control we
are going to need a range of strategies,
not just individual. We need to improve
operational systems, get better at quality
improvement with large scale cooperation
and improved scientific rigour. This was a
session with ample information that left the
audience with a lot of food for thought!
THE DEBATE FLOOR
On Tuesday 27 September we were presented
with an exciting debate on whether contact
precautions are essential for the management
of patients with MDROs. Dr Eli Perencevich,
tenured professor of Internal Medicine and
Epidemiology at the University of Iowa, USA
argued for the motion, while against the
motion stood Dr Fidelma Fitzpatrick, senior
lecturer at the Royal College of Surgeons
in Ireland and consultant microbiologist
at Beaumont Hospital in Dublin.
A debate starts with a statement: This
house believes… and then arguments for and
against. The audience then decides if it agrees
with the statement. Eli Perenevich and Fidelma
Fitzpatrick presented sound arguments as to
why the audience should agree (or disagree)
that: contact precautions are essential for
the management of patients with MDROs.
The result divided the audience almost
completely down the middle. The outcome is
important as it says that the audience (IPC
professionals) are unconvinced of the contents
of their policy manuals and evidence-based
guidance. The debate found that many do
not believe that what we ask people to
do is doable and worth doing. Well done

Eli and Fidelma, thoughtful and thought
provoking. And most importantly they left
everyone wanting another debate at IP2017.
IMPROVING HAND HYGIENE
The final day of conference began with
a session on ‘Using science to guide hand
hygiene surveillance and improvement’
in the Ayliffe Lecture. In this thoroughly
interesting session, Dr Eli Perencevich returned
to discuss each of the opportunities for
hand hygiene observations, and explored
the literature surrounding this subject.
The importance of the World Health
Organization’s five moments for hand hygiene
improvement was commended, although it
was suggested by Dr Perencevich that, along
with each moment, a series of other actions
need to be undertaken in order for staff

REFLECTIONS
The conference this year saw the use
of our very first conference app which
allowed live voting throughout the three
day programme. On the afternoon of 28
September, Dr Jon Otter, epidemiologist
from Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust,
gave the delegates control over his session
title and ended up presenting a session
on the ‘Use of social media by healthcare
professionals – useful or waste of time?’
Dr Jon Otter had the unenviable task of
preparing three talks to present, with delegates
given the choice via the conference app. The
result was announced by Jon on Twitter, of
course. Jon starts with presenting the position
of many of his peers with regard to social
media; ‘Stop wasting time on social media
and do some real work’ said a colleague when
he was discussing the notion of an infection
control journal having an active Twitter feed.
Jon then takes the sizeable audience through
his argument that social media is an essential
learning tool for healthcare professionals and
we must be ready to recognise that times
are changing. The delegates are given a brief
overview of social media and the platforms
available and examples of the many benefits
it provides. Jon finishes by championing
the potential of social media to advancing
the infection control agenda, and provides an
example of its use at Infection Prevention 2016.

Infection Prevention 2016

common way to minimise the threats
to modern day healthcare.

THE ART OF BRILLIANCE
The penultimate session at this year’s
conference welcomed best-selling author Andy
Cope to the stage. Although on this occasion
Andy was unable able to present much of the
science behind his theories, what he presented

The importance of the WHO’s five moments for
hand hygiene improvement was commended,
although it was suggested that a series of other
actions need to be undertaken in order for staff
to actually reach that moment
to actually reach that moment, indicating
that to enable someone to undertake
hand hygiene at the correct opportunity is
far more complicated than five steps. Dr
Perencevich also discussed whether we could
actually get to a sustained 100 per cent
compliance for hand hygiene, and posed the
question ‘If not, how much is enough?’.
Dr Perencevich felt that most automated
monitoring systems did not lead to
increased compliance, and many can’t be
linked to hand hygiene opportunities. He
suggested that video technology could be
the way forward as the ‘Big Brother’ fear of
being watched may increase compliance,
such as that which has been seen by the
Hawthorn effect of direct observation.

was entertaining, poignant, thoughtful and
just side-splitting funny. The key theme was
this: happiness can be experienced here,
now and every day. Rescheduling happiness
for a Friday, or retirement, is a waste of our
allotted 4,000 weeks. Andy Cope’s message is
simple and obvious: don’t discard the Monday
through Thursday. Don’t save your best pants
for your ‘nominated’ best days – enjoy it all.
We are now looking towards 2017 and are
delighted to announce that Infection Prevention
2017 will be held from the 18-20 September at
Manchester Central. Registration and abstract
submission will open in February 2017. L
FURTHER INFORMATION
www.ips.uk.net

An accredited venue often serves as the best choice for conference planners, and it is no different
for healthcare meetings. With that in mind, Health Business revisits guidance
from the Meetings Industry Association

With over 1.3 million business events held
in the UK each year, with a value of over
£39 billion to the economy, meetings and
events are big business. Regardless of sector,
meetings and events are an effective tool
for businesses to facilitate networking
and teambuilding, run product launches,
deliver essential communications and
promote innovation. Organising events is a big
responsibility and there are a number of things
to consider to ensure you are getting it right.
TIMING
Timing is crucial across many aspects of your
event planning. Firstly, whilst there will be
occasions when an event needs to be organised
on a tight timescale, if you can allow plenty
of time for planning, research and marketing,
your event will benefit as a result. It is also
important to consider other industry events
or launches taking place, particularly annual
events which typically take place at the
same time every year. Doing so negates the
risk of clashing with established events and
therefore affecting your delegate numbers.
For the event itself, the schedule for the day
should be clearly laid out and allow for
networking opportunities and sufficient rest
breaks. As a planner, some allowances should
be considered for sessions that overrun and
issues that arise on the day. Timely feedback
is also important after the event. Whether

you choose to ask all delegates or a select
few for feedback after an event, do so
promptly, whilst the event is fresh
in their minds. If you are going
to ask for feedback though,
be prepared to act on it
when it comes to your
next event. If problems
have been highlighted,
work to eliminate
them for next time
and acknowledge and
address them for those
who have been affected.

VENUES
Choosing the right venue is vital. When
selecting the best location for your event,
there are several things to consider. How
accessible is the venue for your delegates?
Is it close to transport links, is parking
available, is it well signposted? What do the
facilities cover? Is there Wi-Fi and AV support
available? Think about legal obligations
too – if your venue is serving food do they
comply with the Allergens Act? Are there
up to date risk assessments available and
compliance with legal acts and requirements?
It can seem like an overwhelming task
but there are initiatives that can help. For
example, Accredited in Meetings (AIM)
provides the meetings industry and its buyers
with a universally recognised indicator of
quality for meetings space and services.
AIM was developed by the Meetings
Industry Association (mia) with the support
and assistance of event professionals
from various strategic partners including
Visit Britain and the North West
Development Agency. Launched
in Spring 2007, there are
over 500 AIM accredited
venues and suppliers in
the UK who demonstrate
their commitment to
quality, service and
continuous improvement,
all of which benefit
the event buyer.

When ur
g yo
plannin factor in
s,
budgetontingency
some c ings that
for th up later
p
may cro the line
down

BUDGETS
Budgets can vary from the generous
to the ‘shoestring’. Regardless of where
yours sits, you can hold an effective and
successful event. Hidden costs often represent
the sting in the tail for many organisers. A good
venue will have clear terms and conditions
and will be transparent regarding their pricing
structure. At the point of booking, ask about
additional charges rather than be faced with
an unwelcome surprise when you receive an
invoice. When planning your budgets, factor
in some contingency for things that may crop
up later down the line. If you are charging
delegates to attend your event, think
about benchmarking against similar events
and allow for ‘early bird’ rates or discounts.

THE BENEFITS OF AIM
Essentially, AIM helps event
planners to source venues they
can instantly trust. But what does it
mean for prospective buyers and bookers?
It means: doing business with venues that
care and have integrity; delegates are well
looked after and commitment to service
excellence is paramount; the facilities and
event spaces are fit for purpose and of high
quality standard; accountability through
an ethical code of conduct; knowing every
element of the venue’s costs in advance;
industry-approved contracts and terms and
conditions; doing business with credible, legally
compliant venues; standardisation of best
practice; procurement boxes ticked; stress free
venue selection; and total peace of mind. E

CONFERENCES
& EVENTS
Towcester racecourse is
perfectly situated for all
major commuting
networks making our
conference centre the
perfect choice for
your event.

GREYHOUND
RACING
Experience the thrill
of the track like
never before with a
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entertainment and
quality dining. Towcester
Racecourse offers Free,
Fast and Furious racing
3 times per week.

HORSE
RACING
Towcester Racecourse is
one of the country’s
most scenic National
Hunt racecourses,
provides a stunning
setting in which to enjoy
the thrilling spectacle
of racing ‘over the sticks’.

telephone: 01327 353414 email: info@towcester-racecourse.co.uk

or visit our website: www.towcester-racecourse.co.uk

86

HEALTH BUSINESS MAGAZINE | Volume 16.5

NETWORKING

Timely feedback is also important after the event.
Whether you choose to ask all delegates or a
select few for feedback after an event, do so
promptly, whilst the event is fresh in their minds
 MEETINGS CODE
All AIM venues abide by the Meetings CODE
which demands: Consistency; Openness;
Decency; and Ethics. AIM venues must
achieve 50 grading criteria that include: the
location and accessibility of the meeting rooms
and facilities; the suitability of the lighting
and heating in meeting rooms; the levels of
security; how often the rooms are cleaned and
decorated; whether the space and furniture
are adequate and suitable; the provision
of in-room services such as power sockets;
what is supplied at no extra charge and
how transparent the published prices are.
AIM-accredited venues and suppliers must
also comply with a number of legal acts,
which complement the criteria, including:
Health & Safety at Work and Fire Safety;
The Bribery Act; Licensing Laws; Data
Protection and Disability Discrimination.
The AIM effect on venues and suppliers
For venues and suppliers, achieving AIM means
gaining an industry accreditation and receiving
recognition for the management of the

business. Internally, the accreditation can help
them audit their processes and procedures
and ensure they are offering an excellent
level of service. The process also highlights
any room for improvement so that they can
be addressed quickly and appropriately.
FACILITIES GRADING
Facilities are subjected to 46 self-assessed
criteria, which again the MIA makes available
for those who wish to access them. Ensuring
all AIM criteria are viewable helps ensure
the scheme is open, fair and transparent.
The Facilities Grading criteria are verified via
spot checks that are unannounced, random
or following a complaint, and range from
cleaning routines and provision of guest
supplies, to lighting, sound, heating and
ventilation systems, to redecoration schedules.
Legal compliance is a ten-point code of legal
compliance through a self-grading process.
For those buyers or other interested parties
who wish to see the full code, it’s available
from the MIA on request. They include

PEOPLE
Finally, though perhaps most importantly, think
about the people involved in your event. Choose
the right speakers – you can have the best
venue, great food and perfect programme but
if the speakers and facilitators aren’t right, your
event may suffer. Work from recommendations
or try and see the speaker in action first if you
can. Always follow up with feedback and thanks.
In terms of delegates, make sure they are well
informed. Send out joining instructions, include
maps and take note of any dietary or accessibility
requirements. If delegates are looked after
in the build up to and post‑event as well as on
the day itself, you’ve ticked one of the most
important boxes. In terms of staff, it’s important
that everyone who will have contact with
your guests, whether on the registration desk
on arrival, serving at lunch, on the cloakroom
or handing out programmes understands
the event and the value of good customer
service. People are at the centre of every
successful meeting. Build strong relationships
and keep people as your focus and you
will have a firm foundation for your events. L
FURTHER INFORMATION
www.mia-uk.org

Discover Lillibrooke…

15th century manor and barns, 21st century tech
An inspiring heritage venue for your private use, Lillibrooke
offers a Small Barn, Great Barn, character syndicate rooms
and 15 acres of grounds – all against the backdrop of a 15th
century Manor House.
Included in the DDR is full use of our high-tech AV, high speed
secure wi-fi, ample free parking, access to the grounds, a highly
experienced events team, and carefully chosen menus prepared by
our on-site chefs. Ideally located just 5 minutes from the M4, 15
minutes from Heathrow, and 20 minutes from Paddington station.
Contact us by phone, email, or via our website- the Lillibrooke
team look forward to welcoming you.

Leisure Industry
Week 2016
The 28th Leisure Industry Week enjoyed distinct educational
streams, engaging content and a positive atmosphere
As the dust settles on another LIW
(Leisure Industry Week), the thousands
of delegates who passed through the
doors at the NEC can reflect on a packed
two days of world class education,
networking and an extensive exhibition.
LIW was purchased in mid-2015 by the
organisation responsible for producing
BodyPower, one of the largest consumer
shows in Europe. Despite a short lead
time, year one saw an increase in visitor
numbers and positive feedback from
both delegates and exhibitors.
It stands to reason, therefore, that
given a full year of marketing and
positioning the show, year two was hotly
anticipated. Pre-show strategy for LIW
was to position the show as a hub for
workforce development with education
taking priority. Distinct education streams
were established in Spa & Wet Leisure,
Sport, Play, Facilities Management,
Fitness (including Practical Coaching and
a Fitness Business School) and Health.
BUSINESS-FOCUSSED
Whereas 2015 was underpinned by a
sprinkling of star dust (where the Keynote
Theatre hosted the likes of Stuart Pearce, Ben
Cohen, Kellie Maloney and Sally Gunnell),
2016 was far more about business. The
draped Operators and Keynote Conference
hosted CEO of Think Digital First, Warren
Knight, former head of Digital at Microsoft,
Allister Frost, and former head of the
John Lewis Intelligence Team Andrew
McMillan, alongside a host of top names.
As Steve Orton, show director, explains:
“Given the additional time and resource
we had to prepare for LIW this year we’ve
taken into account the viewpoint of
some extremely influential people within
the industry to implement a show that
reflects the state of leisure and delivers
in areas that need improvement.
“Skillset is a word on the tip of every
operator’s tongue, and we’ve taken a
stellar line-up of successful businesspeople
from both inside and outside of the
sector to deliver workforce development
opportunities that cater for that demand.”
On education, LIW certainly delivered. Lift
the Bar founder Chris Burgess commented
that LIW was the ‘best show I’ve been
to’; Emporium Gym owner Warren Dyson

88

HEALTH BUSINESS MAGAZINE | Volume 16.5

said that he is ‘old enough to remember
LIW in its former glory and I can say it’s
starting to return to that former glory
and more’; while Shredded by Science
founder Luke Johnson noted that the
show was full of ‘highly motivated trainers
looking to improve their knowledge’.
HIGHLIGHTS
Over the two days there were numerous
highlights. The Sport Education Stream shared
a space with the Play Education Stream, both
delivering a half day conference. Sport saw
the likes of Dean Horridge, Fit for Sport CEO,
deliver a talk on how to improve participation
by ‘engaging with the dis-engaged’ and even
looking at why ‘sport is not for everyone’.
Horridge was joined on the stage by David
Gent and Andrew Soutar of British Weight
Lifting and British Judo respectively,
looking at the ‘impact of the
Olympics on UK sport’ as
well as physiologist Colin
Thomas covering ‘how
to run without injury’.
Play was also a
popular destination.
Speakers included
the likes of Jupiter
Play’s Kristina Causer
covering ‘inclusive
play and designing an
inclusive strategy’, Dr Lee
Smith (a senior lecturer at
Anglia Ruskin University) talking
about ‘encouraging activity within the
family unit’ and principle research associate
Dr David Whitebread discussed the ‘value
of play for young children’s development’.

SPA & WET LEISURE
Backed by the support of STA and SPATA,
Spa & Wet Leisure had a strong presence at
the show with exhibitors including the likes
of AquaMat, ColdTub, SRS Leisure and many
more. The education stream featured the likes
of Invictus Games Swimming Champion Mike
Goody discussing ‘how to turn your swimming
teachers into champions’ as one of many
highlights. Speakers including director of IQL
Martin Symcox, Devin Consulting managing
director Chris Graham and Aquatzi’s Anna
Roscoe, whilst STA provided both Robbie
Phillips and Kayle Burgham in a stream
that covered everything from participation,

safety standards, pool
design, programming,
UK Aquatics Qualifications
and cost-saving.
The Facilities Management
Education Stream was sponsored by
the Sports & Leisure Facilities Forum and
Facilities Management Forum (both run by
Forum Events). Featuring talks on smart
energy strategy, employee engagement,
interpersonal communication, recruitment,
safety culture and sales the diverse conference
was a popular destination throughout
the show. Speakers included PlanDay
chief marketing officer John Coldicutt,
Pure World Energy CEO Simon Wright,
DataHub director Alex Burrows, Serco Sales
coach Gary Edwards and head of Group
Development at Right Directions Gill Twell.
GETTING EVERYONE ACTIVE
LIW were extremely proud to announce
SPORTA as a premier partner early in 2016
and the sight of the Health Education
Stream being packed out on Tuesday

Leisure Industry Week

for the SPORTA Health Improvement
Conference was a major highlight.
Public Health England’s Dr Mike Brannan
kicked things off with a discussion on ‘the
challenge of getting everyone active’ in an
insightful day. Wednesday saw the likes
of East of Riding Leisure’s Kevin Hadfield
doing a case study on GP referrals, Hayley
Jarvis discussing ‘the role of physical activity
in tackling mental health issues’ and Dr
Dane Vishnubala of Core Fitness looking
at how ‘the fitness industry can get more
involved in the physical activity agenda’.
THE FITNESS STREAM
Certainly the busiest and arguably the most
talked-about area of the show, however,
was the Fitness Stream. Covering three
distinct zones, the Fitness Business School,
Practical Coaching and Tropicana Wholesale
Nutrition Zone, there was a wealth of
knowledge and expertise that impressed
both speakers and delegates. Standout
names included Americans Sol Orwell and
Mark Fisher, as well as Ben Coomber, Dr

Gary Mendoza, Phil Learney, Jamie Alderton,
Paul Mort, Luke Johnson, Chris Burgess,
Martin MacDonald and many, many more.
The Fitness Business School offered fitness
professionals the ability to learn from the
most prominent coaches and educators
that have developed their own businesses
successfully, whilst Practical Coaching
targeted personal trainers, fitness managers
and nutritionists to deliver a world class
line-up of industry figureheads discussing the
practical application of training and nutrition.
Other noteworthy areas included the sight
of over 300 Pure Gym Personal Trainers
converging on the closed Pure Gym Personal
Trainer Conference that attracted top name
speakers, whilst the likes of Sosa Dance
Fitness, BhangraBlaze and Hulafit all provided
energetic demonstrations in the Studio to
showcase the latest classes. Urban Attack
ran an extremely popular assault course over
the two days and the Trampoline Park was
once again a great place to let off steam.
All that education was complimented
by a packed show floor that saw over 150

exhibitors get some excellent sales leads
with some engaging visual displays.
Steve Orton commented: “We were
confident that LIW would be a superior event
to 2015 with a full run-up of event promotion
and that opinion has only been reinforced
during a two packed days. Our tailored
educational programmes, excellent features,
exciting interactive areas, ground breaking
product launches and hundreds of exceptional
brands made the show a clear success.
“We’re already planning next year’s event
and we’ll have some fantastic new additions to
make LIW 2017 even bigger and better. We’ve
seen growth both in the number of visitors
and exhibitors and the show will keep being
nurtured by our team. I’m proud of the event
and I hope it was as enjoyable for everyone who
attended as it was for us as organisers.” L

Providing cost-effective,
tailored parking solutions
Originally formed to
tackle unauthorised
parking on private
land, Vehicle Control
Services (VCS) now
offers client focused
parking control to
both the public and
private sectors.
By approaching each
contract individually
VCS ensures a
service tailored to a
sites specific needs.
Flexibility is at the heart of
everything it endeavours.
As traffic levels increase the
demand for parking intensifies.
With a client portfolio that
encompasses NHS trusts,
university campuses, ports, train
stations, multi-acre business
parks, airports, high street
retailers, retail parks and red
routes; VCS has the expertise to
ensure that every site, no matter
how complex its individual
characteristics, receives the
service most suited to its needs.

You can’t be healthy
without being clean
Next year is Cleanovation’s
30th anniversary in the cleaning
business. Cleaning properly
is increasingly challenging,
long gone are the days of a
flick with the feather duster.
Cleaning the spaces we all
work in these days involves
kitchens, washrooms, desks and
delicate cabling, vast windows
and a myriad of materials
each of which needs different
treatment; leather, stainless
steel, wool upholstery, various
woods, lino, rubber, marble
and terrazzo. Cleanovation
has even had to learn how
to deal with kids’ crayons.
The company goes out of its
way to avoid harmful chemicals.
Detergents, which are made with
petrochemicals, do terrible things
to your skin. Cleanovation prefer
soaps which are just as effective
at cleaning, but rarely provoke
allergies. Products include those
that break down naturally after
use - we all have to do our part
in thinking about our planet.

CLEANING

MODULAR BUILD

Go To Goal Limited is a young
but successfully expanding
company. Its aim is to provide
the highest quality cleaning
service in all London areas. It
does that by keeping clients
satisfied in every aspect related
to its business, be it a friendly
and cheerful approach from all
members of staff, or the excellent
quality of work it gladly delivers.
Go To Goal’s staff are very
carefully selected with their
background and experience
checked. The company believes,
that when you respect each and
every member of your staff, you
receive the highest quality of
work in return. That is why Go To
Goal is proud to say that it pays
staff a decent salary above the
minimum wage and that staff are
always motivated to deliver and
aim towards higher standards.
Finding a great cleaning company
which is passionate about its
work is not always easy. However,

Jackpad is a Leicesterbased business providing
foundations for modular
and relocatable buildings.
The product is a re-usable
foundation system suitable
for temporary or permanent
modular buildings and in
most instances negates the
need for excavating the existing
surface or pouring concrete. This
is especially important if a
building is temporary and the
surface on which it is placed
needs to be returned to its
former use afterwards like
offices or clinics on a car park.
Jackpads provide an
environmentally friendly
solution – manufactured from
100 per cent recycled plastic
and painted steel, the product
includes incremental packers
which overcome any fall in the
ground, so levelling is simple
and foundations structurally
sound. Suitable for up to triple
storey modular buildings, the
Jackpad system has been

Fanatical about cleaning,
ensuring every job is
completed to perfection

Go To Goal never disappoints
and is always aiming to provide
the very best customer service.
Go To Goal only works with
experienced cleaners who
are trained to its own best
practice and standards
There are no hidden fees, it
agrees an hourly or fixed rate
for your cleaning, with 100 per
cent Satisfaction Guarantee.
Go To Goal provides
superior customer service
seven days a week!
FURTHER INFORMATION
info@gotogoal.co.uk
www.gotogoal.co.uk

The company could go on and
on singing its virtues – the way
it vets staff (no one gets to
be a key-holder without years
of demonstrating they can be
trusted), the way it cleans the
windows in reception every
day, the way many of its clients
have kept using Cleanovation
for twenty years or more –
but the proof of the pudding
would be giving us a try.
Call Nick Morley to talk
about your needs.
FURTHER INFORMATION
Tel: 020 7252 5550
www.cleanovation.co.uk

Reusable foundations for
modular buildings

proven to be invaluable in
many healthcare projects
including temporary clinics
and offices at GP practices and
hospitals around the UK.
Kris Cartwright, managing
director, said: “Jackpads come
into their own when used for
otherwise difficult projects. The
Jackpad system is fully
calculated and is accredited by
Building Control. It is simple
to install and simple to take
away later should the portable
building need to be moved.”
FURTHER INFORMATION
Tel: 0116 286 6966
kriscartwright@jackpad.co.uk
www.jackpad.co.uk

The Bacou White Labo from
Honeywell is a range of white
clogs designed specifically for
use in hospitals and laboratories,
where the demands of the job
require the wearer to spend long
hours on their feet. With this in
mind, Honeywell has designed
the Bacou White Labo range
with a leather lining and upper,
which has been perforated
to provide the wearer with
aeration to the foot, helping
to keep it cool throughout a
long shift. In addition the PU
wedge sole offers the wearer
flexibility of movement and

Humanitas Healthcare Services
(HHS) Limited is a clinicallyled Independent Healthcare
Organisation committed to
supporting and enhancing models
of provision and delivery of an
expanding range of communitybased local anaesthetic surgical
procedures. It was established
almost 10 years ago and is
based in the West Midlands.
HHS’ service users include both
NHS choose-and book e-referrals
as well as private/self-referrals.
The expanding range of
procedures HHS performs include
minimally invasive Vasectomies;
contraceptive implants; Carpal
Tunnel Decompression; Trigger
finger release; removal of benign
lumps, bumps and moles; and
musculo-skeletal injections.
HHS is CQC registered, AQP
accredited, and its medical
director is a member of the
Independent Doctors Federation,
an associate member of the
British Society for Surgery
of the Hand, and an ASPC

Introducing the Bacou
White Labo range

improved slip resistance on many
different types of surfaces.
The Bacou White Labo
range complies with EN ISO
20345:2007 SB EA SRC standard
and is available both with and
without a 200J steel toe cap.
The Bacou White Labo range is
available in sizes 2-9 (35-42).
More information on the Bacou
White Labo range can be found
on the Honeywell website.
FURTHER INFORMATION
Tel: +44 (0) 1256 693200
info-uk.hsp@honeywell.com
www.honeywell.com

MEDICAL MODELS

SIGNAGE

Medical Models Online
is a leading UK supplier
of medical training
models, manikins and
anatomy models, from
small phlebotomy and
IM Injection training
models through to catheterisation
models and full body manikins.
Medical Models Online supply
hospitals, universities, surgeries
and training providers in
the UK and overseas. NHS
purchase orders welcome.
To ensure the best available
equipment at a competitive
price, models are sourced from
factories around the world and
made available on one site for
easy purchase. This ensures
a wide choice of equipment
with models from major
manufacturers at reduced rates
and models specifically made
for Medical Models Online.
The importance of education,
training and development
in healthcare professionals
cannot be underestimated, and

Obviously a situation
everyone wants to
avoid. So, how do you
effectively and safely
display information to
patients in a medical
environment?
This is the core
question that should
be considered when making
a sign for display in any busy
environment – the last thing
anyone wants is to have a hard to
see sign fall on their head when
all they were looking for was the
doctor’s office for a consultation
about an ingrowing toenail.
The process of buying signs
in general can also sometimes
be a complicated affair. PJ’s
Graphics, based in Ruislip,
West London, specialises in
making the process simple, yet
still guaranteeing a finished
product which is both attractive,
useful and installed safely.
Whether the client has a good
grasp of the signs that are
needed or not, PJ’s Graphics

Medical training, models
and educational manikins

92

Commited to excellence in
community based surgery

with modern equipment it is
possible to closely simulate the
reality of performing various
procedures in a safe, patient
free environment. Modern
materials and manufacturing
also mean the cost of equipment
has come down, and so many
professionals now buy their
own equipment to allow
practice at their convenience.
Medical Models Online
can provide suture, injection,
phlebotomy, gynaecological,
catheterisation, surgical and
many other types of manikin
as well as skeletons, charts
and anatomical models.
FURTHER INFORMATION
Tel: 01460 200111
www.medicalmodelsonline.com

HEALTH BUSINESS MAGAZINE | Volume 16.5

approved vasectomy trainer.
HHS’ values are founded on
principles and practice of ethics,
safety, and evidence-based
high quality and its culture
embraces respect, dignity,
equality, and diversity of all
services users. These ensure
excellent feedback scores.
For the convenience of
service users HHS is able to
provide seven days availability
and its service model mission
seeks to ensure treatment
closer-to-home to meet the
choice of service users.
It also provides education and
training and is passionate about
performance monitoring.
FURTHER INFORMATION
Tel: 01922 504 991

Man seriously injured
after sign falls on head

ensure to keep any technical
drawings for approval basic
and easy to understand.
Successfully completing sign
works in the past for many
businesses in the corporate sector
the company can confidently
advise an effective solution
to any sign requirements that
adhere to all legal requirements.
Visit the website to find out
how PJ Graphics can help
you with your signage needs,
or alternatively, call up and
speak to an adviser.
FURTHER INFORMATION
Tel: 07717 337 658
pjsgraphics@yahoo.co.uk
www.pjsgraphics.co.uk

ENERGY

ENERGY

As part of the Craggs Energy
Group, recently recognised as
‘one to watch’ in the Times 100
fastest growing businesses in
the UK, Craggs Environmental
provides public sector and
commercial customers UK-wide
with a range of fuel management
services to minimise the risks
and costs associated with
using and storing bulk fuel.
Fuels such as diesel, gas, oil
and kerosene are subject to
degradation through exposure
to light, heat and particularly
the absorption of water from
moisture in the atmosphere.
Water reacts with naturally
occurring bacteria within the
fuel forming a black sludge
like material which forms
the bulk of contamination
problems for stored fuel.
Craggs Environmental’s core
services include fuel sampling
and testing, on site fuel cleaning,
tank base cleans, fuel uplift and

recent years and should always
be considered for heating
and lighting in large scale
buildings and refurbishments.
ESP energy, renewable energy
experts and installers based in
Shropshire, is MCS accredited,
ensuring that all projects
are executed to the highest
standards. With over three
hundred commercial installations
using a range of renewable
energy technologies such as: heat
pumps, solar panels, underfloor
heating, biomass boilers,
combined heat & power (CHP)
and district heating schemes,
ESP Energy is the first choice for
expert renewable energy advice.
ESP’s recently completed
2.2MW district heating scheme
project in the picturesque tourist
attraction of ‘Portmeirion’ in
North Wales, demonstrates the
company’s extensive knowledge
and ability. For this project a
total of 27 properties were

What would happen if the Installing high quality and
renewable energy systems
fuel in your emergency
Renewable energy has become
generator tank failed?
mainstream and affordable in

transfer and NDT inspections.
The Craggs Energy Group
is licensed by HMRC and
the Environment Agency as
both a Registered Dealer
in Controlled Oils and as a
Waste Permit Holder.
To find out more about how
Craggs Environmental can
ensure your fuel is fit for purpose
please contact the team via the
telephone number listed below.
FURTHER INFORMATION
Tel: 01422 882500
www.craggs
environmental.co.uk

ENERGY

PRINT

CMR Consultants is a privately
owned energy and water
consultancy based in the
Midlands, but provides services
across the UK and globally. CMR’s
energy consultants have over 25
years’ experience working in the
NHS and private healthcare sector
where the company has carried
out a diverse range of services
from simple energy surveys and
Carbon Trust work through to the
provision of complete combined
heat and power installations.
CMR’s surveys initially
focus on low and no cost
recommendations with less
than three year payback
periods which it expects to
yield a 10-25 per cent saving
on current energy costs.
Using protocols such as the
IPMVP, CMR can independently
verify the energy and water
savings claimed by energy
services companies. The
company’s integrated service
of consultancy, monitoring
and targeting, and forecasting

With over 130 years experience
in the production of printed
material, Wotton Printers
has earned its reputation for
quality, service and innovation
throughout the South West.
Established in 1885 by Samuel
Wotton, the original printing
presses were powered by a
gas engine with a drive train of
overhead shafts and belts. They
have come a long way since then,
duly embracing each generation
of new technology to enhance
the range of services they offer,
with speed of delivery and
commitment to customer care.
State-of-the-art four and
five colour litho presses are
capable of meeting all your
print requirements including
corporate stationery, full
colour brochures, fine art
catalogues, books, leaflets,
newsletters, booklets, point of
sale material and calendars.
For business forms and NCR
sets such as invoices, statements
and order forms, as well as

Providing carbon, energy
and water solutions

is developed around your
needs and delivered by
an experienced team.
CMR can help you develop
and implement an energy
management framework that
not only achieves ISO 50001
certification but is also tailored
to your specific organisation.
Its water consultancy team
has many years of experience
identifying and implementing
water related cost reductions.
Please feel free to call
for an initial discussion,
or send an email.
FURTHER INFORMATION
Tel: 0844 225 1166
info@cmrgroup.co.uk

linked together onto one district
heating scheme with over 3.5
miles of underground pipework.
District heating schemes
and combined heat & power
units are energy efficient, cost
effective and earn the highest
revenue when used in large
building complexes or villages
which demand a vast amount
of heat and electricity.
For a free, no obligation site
survey, or to discuss your
projects requirements call ESP
Energy to speak to an adviser.
FURTHER INFORMATION
Tel: 01743 718003
info@espenergy.co.uk
www.espenergy.co.uk

Highly trusted digital and
litho printing company

tickets, flyers and envelopes, the
spot colour line provides a rapid
turnaround for all your dayto-day requirements, including
numbering and perforating.
For shorter run print
requirements Wotton Printers
digitally print a variety of work
including award winning football
programmes and has recently
invested in a large format
printer now able to produce
pull-up banners, canvas banners,
advertising boards and complete
signage for your individual needs.
Please visit the Wotton Printers
website for more information.
FURTHER INFORMATION
Tel: 01626 353698
www.wottonprinters.co.uk

A clinical health coaching
programme for patients with
long term health conditions
commissioned by Parker Drive
Practice & Manor Medical
Centre, Leicester City CCG,
has shown dramatic results in
clinical improvements in patient
care, quality improvements and
activity reduction for the NHS.
The coaching service designed
and delivered by specialists
Totally Health, focused on
ensuring that patients were
better educated about their
condition and had a greater
insight into the support that was
available, with the aim of helping
them to become less dependent
on NHS services. Coaching was
carried out over the telephone,
which allowed for flexibility
with appointments and meant
patients did not have to travel.
An evaluation of the
scheme found that amongst
participants there had been:
a 67 per cent reduction in
unplanned admissions; a 47 per

Our Mobile Health specialise
in health app assessment and
digital health consultancy. It
provides the ability for service
providers to confidently
recommend and deploy apps.
The company also advises
the digital health industry
and helps policy makers
set industry standards.
Our Mobile Health currently
sits on the EU mHealth Working
Group developing health app
assessment guidelines, as
well as advising the National
Information Board on its health
app assessment framework. The
company’s input is frequently
sought for white papers and
academic research; for example
for the Royal Academy of
Engineering (IET) and the
Academy of Medical Sciences.
Our Mobile Health has the
credentials to help healthcare
organisations navigate their way
through emerging technologies
in this arena and also to create
a successful strategy that can

Cut A&E attendance with
clinical health coaching

cent reduction in secondary care
out-patient appointments; a 39
per cent reduction in contact
with all health professionals
in local services; a 30 per cent
reduction in GP/practice nurse
appointments; and a 22 per
cent reduction in community
healthcare appointments.
Dr Durairaj Jawahar, lead GP
at Manor Medical Practice,
said: “Clinical health coaching
enables patients with longterm conditions to be a major
partner in managing their
condition effectively and helps
the NHS to achieve valuable
healthcare outcomes.”
FURTHER INFORMATION
Tel: 020 3866 3337
www.totallyhealth.com

Curated mHealth apps for
better patient care

be confidently adopted and
deployed. There are now over
250,000 mHealth apps available
and the quality of many of
them is unknown. To that end,
Our Mobile Health launched
the UK’s first curated library of
health and medical apps. The
curated apps are peer-reviewed
by relevant experts in the
appropriate fields, developing
tailored portfolios of high-quality
apps suitable for deployment to
staff and patients. This means
healthcare organisations can
confidently make best use of
the latest mobile health services
to reduce costs and improve
patients’ health outcomes.
FURTHER INFORMATION
hello@ourmobilehealth.com
www.ourmobilehealth.com

the healthier vending solution
for your hospital
• Free on loan equipment
• Fully trained Operators
• A.V.A Quality Audited
• Healthier Options only in machines
• Royalties back to the Trust
...call us to find out more about the
future of vending at your Hospital

Maximised equipment uptime ensures equipment is available for clinical use
Guaranteed repair quality in accordance with OEM technical specification
All repairs exclusively performed by trained and licensed technicians, using only OEM parts, tools and processes
Site level repair analysis and on-site training delivered by Uptime Support Managers
Extensive loan inventory, including latest generation instruments performing to OEM standards

For more information, please visit www.olympus.co.uk or call the Customer Care Team on 01702 616333.